30 Days of NCT: Choreo Chat - Regular

NCT 127 - Regular

Choreographer: Rie Hata, Choi Hyoje

Co-choreographers: PREPIX_Ill, Kida The Great

Rie Hata is a Japanese hip hop choreographer known as the Queen of Swag. Is there a Neo choreo that automatically comes to mind when I say "swag"? Yup, then I bet she choreographed it.

If Dream's dance style is high-energy and explosive, NCT 127's dance style has attitude to spare. It is very fast and strong with definite swag. They can be crisp and sharp but also effortlessly casual and easy with their movements. There also is a strength and unabashed sexiness to their style. I really liked the way chounim described a key element, their "bounce", because I really feel like that is a notable difference in this unit. This is also reflective of their musical style - which is the strongest hip hop-driven unit, as well as the most experimental musical style of the sub-units.

VVS my diamonds I don't need no light to shine

Taeyong and Mark often get the attention here and justifiably - they are outstanding main dancers - but it's worth watching on a second watch to see the hard work the lead dancers do (esp. Jaehyun and Yuta) in moving across the formations to create balance with the eye, as well as off-setting less strong dancers (two of the main vocalists).

Main dancers (Taeyong - white shirt, black ripped jeans, Mark - headband)

Leads (Jaehyun - baseball cap, short sleeve black shirt, Yuta - bucket hat, Haechan - white shirt with print, Jungwoo - red hair, black shirt sleeves)

MV:

Performance:

For a contrast, the song was re-choreographed by PREPIX Ill for WayV's version, which retains the original choreo elements with a distinct WayV twist.

Quote from quarkie

This may sound crazy, but there's something about this choreo that always makes me think of West Side Story. More so than any others I can think of this feels not just swaggy, but also like a challenge. It's very Sharks Vs Jets to me for some reason.

Touch to me always feel the most broadway musical to me, as well as Superhuman, but I can see where you’re coming from here. (And of course those will come up in the next 30 days. I tried to walk away from my Superhuman fave but someone called it as a missing choreo so it’s not my fault. Touch I know can feel a less essential choreo but I feel like it really shows off that these guys can do everything 😌)

This is one of the easier Neo choreos to execute but I feel like when I see this one or Boss covered, what is always sorely missing is the bravado and attitude of NCT 127 and it ends up feeling like it’s missing something, no matter how technically well it’s executed.