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Local Studio Teaches K-pop Dance Amid National Rise in Fandom
By Jaelynn Grisso
May is Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage month, and so this week, we’re bringing you arts and culture stories from the AANHPI community, including the rise of a now internationally known genre of music and dance: K-pop.
K-pop, short for Korean Pop, has gained widespread popularity in the U.S. Earlier this year, the hit “Golden” from the movie KPop Demon Hunters made history by being the first K-pop song to win a Grammy and the first to win an Oscar.
While the genre is growing nationwide, the West is home to the most K-Pop fans, according to a Billboard survey from last summer. One of those fans, Tory Tao, wanted to share her love for the genre, so she founded CoffeeDance Studio in Bellevue in 2020 to teach K-Pop and related dance styles. She said the community is now around 11,000 people.
“I wanted to build a place that can make people feel so good about themselves,” Tao said. “People carry different social roles in daily life. I hope they can have ‘me’ time here, so when they come to the studio, they just enjoy the dance and show a different version of themselves.”
The genre incorporates elements of pop, hip-hop and R&B. But almost equally important is the power of a spotlight. The folks at CoffeeDance Studio get that. So, in addition to offering dance classes for kids and adults, they also offer a program to develop K-pop music videos.
“K-pop is not just about music and dance. It's about storytelling," Tao said. "I feel like it's really easy for people to express themselves, and, also at the same time, bring joy and connections and confidence to them.”
