Mar 04 2008
So you think you can dance?
Sometimes, I don’t really feel qualified to write about the musical quality of my favorite JPop groups. My own experience with performing music is limited to a short stint playing clarinet in high school, and I’ve never taken any kind of singing lessons. That said, I do know a thing or two about dance. I’ve been taking lessons all my life, and I was one of the captains of my high school dance-team which placed 2nd in the State three out of the four years I was there. The fact that we placed 2nd rather than first is kind of a sore spot, so we won’t go into that, but my point is that naturally, I find myself very interested in the dancing skills of my favorite idol groups.
Fortunately, there is no lack of dancing skills in Johnny’s. If you look at my two favorite groups, KAT-TUN and Arashi, you’ll find that they’re all good dancers, every last one of them. I’ve made comparisons, and the Johnny’s boys are MUCH better dancers than their American counterparts (BSB, N*Sync, etc) I attribute this to the fact that Johnny’s Jr’s work primarily as back-dancers, so to stand out from the crowd enough to be placed in a unit and debuted, you almost have to be a really good dancer. You might be good at singing, but if you can’t dance, I don’t think they’ll give you enough of a second glance to realize that. This wasn’t so true in the time of, say, SMAP, but with the more recent groups, dancing is at a premium. From preliminary observations of newest debuted group Hey!Say!Jump, I’d say that trend is only becoming stronger. I’ve also read many interviews saying the Johnny’s really don’t do much voice training, but they do A LOT of dance training. Well, they are idols after all, and how they look on stage really is more important than how they sound, isn’t it? Bad singing can be hidden, to a certain extent, by the other members or using lip-syncing, but bad dancing is much harder to disguise. Of course, a group can’t primarily be made up of bad singers, or their music will be disastrous, but, as Matsujun definitively proves, it is not necessary for all the members of a group to be competent singers. I would argue that for the current groups it is necessary for all of the members to be competent dancers.
For fun, a member by member breakdown of dancing styles, ranked by my personal opinion of how good they look.
KAT-TUN
1. Junno- 1st because I think he’s the best technical dancer (as in technique, not technicality). I’ve seen him do a lot of technically difficult moves, kick-spins and triple+ pirouettes for example, and because he looks the most spirited
2. Jin- sexiest at dancing for sure, he makes it look really effortless. Especially good at pop and lock style or anything that involves rolling his hips. Of course, this only applies if he happens to remember his choreography. Lol.
3. Kame- not technically the best, but the smoothest. He reminds me of Michael Jackson (just his dancing, not the creepy/insane pedophile thing), good at twirling
4. Koki- kind of dances like he’s attacking someone, good at break-dancing and aggressive-type stuff. Very energetic.
5. Maru- surprisingly good at dancing, but he never stands out, and his “blah” facial expression detracts from his performance
6. Ueda- is quite graceful, but he’s not very sharp (a bit timid with the moves) and he tends to fade into the background. He is very good at the hip-rolling thing though.
Arashi
1. Matsujun- Natural grace and rhythm combined with lots of flair. He’s probably the most naturally talented out of the bunch when it comes to dancing. With his long limbs, he has the potential to look gangly, but since he’s so well-coordinated, it just makes his moves bigger and his dancing more impressive.
2. Aiba- Very energetic and sharp. He always meshes with the group nicely
3. Ohno- Has less flair, but he’s very precise. If his arm is supposed to be parallel to the floor at a certain point, for example, then it’s going to be exactly parallel to the floor. He practically never makes a mistake or looks awkward, and he gets bonus points for making up a lot of the choreography. Hmm, he probably should be 2nd, but I just like Aiba’s style more really. Ohno’s dancing is almost too perfect.
4. Nino- is a really good dancer, maybe the best…by himself, but his style is quite loose and so it sometimes comes off as sloppy when he’s with the group. Still, he’s always right on beat and never half-does any move, so while he does stand out, it’s not really in a bad way. Also, he can kick really high!
5. Sho- only gets last here because he can be a bit stiff at times, kind of the opposite problem Nino has. He just doesn’t quite flow as well as the rest. The rankings on the other 4 are somewhat debatable, but I’m quite confident that Sho belongs in 5th. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad dancer though! Just that the rest of them are really really good.
The final segment of this entry is video examples of some very nice dancing by these boys.
First, an Arashi performance of “Right Back to You”, possibly my favorite of their album tracks. Arashi never fails to impress me with how much choreographed dancing they incorperate into their concerts. They tend to do more lip-syncing in lives than KT does, but if they didn’t, I’m afraid that with all the dancing they do they would drop dead of exhaustion by the end of the show. Anyway, Arashi dances usually lean towards the cheesy, so this ‘cool’ dance is a nice change of pace. This is no easy dance they’re performing either. It’s full of very quick, precise isolations. If they were doing anything not quite full-out, or they weren’t almost perfectly in sync, this would look like a complete mess! There are a few moments where they’re not quite matching up (sho messes up around 0:22), but overall it’s great. I especially like Aiba’s dancing throughout this, how cool Jun looks at 0:36, and Nino’s move at 2:41. Sexy! Damn. The more I look at this, the more I want to teach myself this dance.
Enough of Arashi though, let’s focus on KAT-TUN.
Here’s their little dance solo-introduction things from KT’s ‘real face’ tour. First there’s a short dance, but it’s kind of lame choreography, so don’t pay attention to that. I chose this clip for the later parts that focus more on each member. Then there’s individual cam-whoring segments (funny how well they all fit their personalities), and lastly short paired dances. Jin and Kame don’t so much dance as sex it up for the camera on their turn (last pair), but I’m perfectly okay with that. I really enjoy their little, “what” pose at the end. The cam-whoring order is kame (sexy), jin (SEXY), ueda (cute but please never do your hair like this again), koki (tough then funny), maru (lame), and junno (dork!).
See what I mean about Junno’s technical dancing skills? I certainly love barrel turns (the jumpy thingys), and those turns at the end are impressive. 6 without his other foot touching the ground, by my count. Sigh. I can do 3 if I’m lucky.
Jin solo that’s full of amazing sexy dancing! *squeals* The most of the actual dancing is toward the end (like 1:05 on). Oh those are some dirty lyrics there JinJin. There’s also a really funny cameo by Kame.
Dancin’ All of the Night
~Celestia~