Are people too hard on Karina’s dancing?

Is Karina supposed to be the main dancer of the group? I’m asking because I don’t know their positions.

Neah, people just enjoy bullying aespa every time. All stages were weird, there were no backup dancers to fill the stage, no lights, no props.

She might be stiff because she didn't dance enough, it really depends on how many years she trained before debuting. The body needs some time to become used to dancing, and also she might be nervous, she just debuted so she is still not comfortable being in front of cameras, it's absolutely normal.

She did her best and her facial expression was on point.

But seriously the choreography was terrible the choreo doesn’t match the theme of the song. Add the fact Karina isn’t a natural dancer she can pull aespa choreography really well but outside of aespa not that much.

yes but she does need a lot of practice

Quote from bbb988

Yeah even good dancers like Yeji or Ryujin have their stiff moments, but it seems only Karina is often pointed out for that so maybe they just like to bully Karina.

Y’all really throw the word bully out of nowhere the gag is that Ruyjin and Yeji proved to be extremely good dancers even their worst performances are top tier performance don’t know why are you even comparing some of the best dancers in kpop lol...

Quote from taeric

She might be stiff because she didn't dance enough, it really depends on how many years she trained before debuting. The body needs some time to become used to dancing, and also she might be nervous, she just debuted so she is still not comfortable being in front of cameras, it's absolutely normal.

Funny when we say the same thing about Lia she gets dragged to hell when in fact she isn’t even in the dance line

She's no BoA but the choreography Karina had to work with didn't help either.

She doesn't seem like a natural dancer tbh, all of her solo dance performances have gone viral for the wrong reasons too.

I do think that people are extra critical of big 3 girl groups though, she's not an awful dancer by any means and the choreographies she gets don't do her any favours either.

Quote from bbb988

Yeah she is main dancer

Well I agree with the users above that the stage set up didn’t help her at all and that “collab” stage was weird in general, but truth be told, she’s also kinda stiff for a main dancer.

Obviously she doesn’t deserve hate but when you have SM stans constantly saying how SM always has the best of the best when comes to idols you can’t blame people for having high expectations.

she’s not main dancer material

she doesn’t deserve hate, but she's not main dancer material

I still think Karina's performance is pretty great, though. Maybe it's because I focus more on singing than dancing when it comes to aespa. Their choreo are usually pretty catchy and I think that works well for them.

her skills are fine, they are just inferior to the others in the collab so by comparison it didn't help.

But I think what really undermined is the choreography and stage, the overall thing didn't fit.

The best combination of lightning/styling + choreography and skills was itzy's yeji, beyond her obvious skills, her stage was coherent on all grounds.

Aespa is a dancer that only dance with a choreo that given by their choreographer and their dance is good as a group. While kinda weak if them dancing solo. I’m a dancer myself but i have to agreed that Karina is below average dancer. Maybe because she not a natural dancer. (Yes she dance during her high school but the one who teach her is not professional one). But that okay, with her being part sm, i believe she can improve a lot in the future.

If Karina is from another label, maybe she’s great. But she’s from SM and it had been said the trainees are the best of the best. So expectations are kinda high.

It doesn’t help that she was one of the 5 dancers and all 4 showed great showmanship and their passion for dancing shone thru (for me). Karina did all the moves but she didn’t move me. But then Karina is just a one year old rookie, she just might need more experience to build her confidence and style. My expectation is that we will see great things for her.. hopefully soon.

Quote from bbb988

yeah i think you have a point. what about this performance that some also say she was stiff? was it the choreography that sets her up?

External Content youtu.be

Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.

Display all external content

Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

Judging from this video and as someone who dances:

She dances stiff and does not connect the moves fluidly. It rather seems like separate dance moves. Also you can see her counting in this video. She makes breaks between each move and so it does seem stiff and robotic. The “highlight” moves (e.g. hand moves) look good but it lacks the support and seem stiff. Her body does not really move with/into each step. It’s like she is only concentrating on the hand movement/or most of important move one at a time. She kind of lacks this intuitive dancing ability where someone naturally connects all the steps of a routine without any counting or breaks. Someone who does that well is J-Hope, Taemin, Momo or Kai. I think that she lacks confidence and she needs to do more freestyle, so it will come naturally

Meh. I can still recall how K-pop fans were constantly claiming how SNSD and Super Junior couldn't sing and how SNSD were only 'talentless visuals' - until it was proven definitely, objectively and undeniably that both groups had the best vocal line of their generation and antis and other-group stans K-pop fans couldn't get away again anymore with such bold false claims and lies.

Ever since then I've been wary about such 'criticisms', because they're often simply shades by other-group stans, trying to get a negative narrative going about a group or idol they dislike or feel threatened by - or that at the least isn't their bias group.

It's true that Karina hasn't shown off her dance prowess is special performance or dance cuts yet like some of ther 4th gen dancers already did, and it certainly doesn't help if SM doesn't put effort in great stage sets or in providing opportunities for their idols to show off.

But the same was said about Seulgi, whose dance talents got ignored or discarded in discussions in the early RV years - but then those special dance performances became available, and she showed off her dance talents in a wide range of very different performances and dance pieces (and not to forget the sublime 'Naughty' choreo).

Also, freestyle and hiphop aren't the only indicators of whether someone's a good, talented dancer or not, just like high notes and belting aren't the only indicators someone's a good, talented vocalist.

In short, imo Karina has shown she can learn dance moves very quickly and adapt to various dance styles and moves, and shows great isolation in moves, but hasn't shown individual dance performances that shows off moves or a range of a top tier dancer - yet. Time will tell what her dance potential and range of talents are, just as it did with several other SM (and non-SM) idols in vocals, dance and performance.

it was ok, but nothing exceptional.

SM made her out to be the next big thing she was dancing with Taemin and Kai. So they set her up lol.

Also, this isn’t the first time people are criticizing her dancing. She has quite a few already.

And Karina is the main dancer but people get more protective of what they say to her compared to Lia who is not the main dancer and is dragged constantly. So are people too hard on her? No. Because in theqoo post it’s basically mix reactions and people bringing up her visuals. If that was another idol it wouldn’t be like that lol.

I don't think she is as bad as people make her seemes to be, but honestly she is not a main dancer material. Karina is just your average K-pop female dancer, she doesn't stand out imo. She is still a rookie tho there's still a room for improvement.

She is a good Kpop dancer I think, her style is kind of like Ryujin. The problem is Karina seems to be more the kind that learned to dance well more than someone naturally gifted.

She isn't stiff but she doesn't add her own flavour to it. Its the pop genre SM loves to teach their trainees.

Had it been Kai or Taemin, they surely would have added a spice of stage presence and charisma.

Seulgi also gets similar choreos but again she knows how to use her strong points.

Quote from SooYoung

disagree that's the biggest BS that Kpop fans are spreading, main dancer are just the best dancer of the group

and that's a big BS that kpop fans limits being a good dancer to only hip hop based dance choregraphy

Karina have a lot of strenght to make of her a great main dancer, and i always find weird how people generalize who's a good dancer to just one dance style '-'

maybe karina isn't the best hip hop dancer

but based on he little thing we saw, she have a much bigger potential to be a better dancer in contemporary and ballet than yeji, ryujin etc... who based on what we saw are mostly train in more hip hop style dance

so i find his really weird how people say she's not a good dancer just because she doesn't master hip hop dance as well than other

when she have much more training in other dance than other main dancer of other groups

being a great dancer isn't limited to only 1 dance style, and that's seems to be a little too hard to understand for kpop fans

and Karina also proved with her bola rebola cover that when she got a dance who highlight her strenght she's able to also do well in more hip hop style dance

Display More

Quote from SooYoung

she have a much bigger potential to be a better dancer in contemporary and ballet than yeji, ryujin etc...

you know this is BS both Yeji and Ryujin shows other dancing styles like ballet and other modern dancing styles in their cheographies.

I liked her performance. I think since she's the main dancer people expect a lot from her. I would not say she dances better than Ryeji tho, let alone our main dancer Lee Chaeryeong. She's not even on Seulgi (same company) level... She's not stiff by any means tho and will surely improve a ton. Also, her voice is amazing so I am sure her singing skills also played a role into her debut.

I agree with some the users in here, Karina is not naturally gifted dancer, she become good dancer through hard work. The bad news is, in this collab she's surrounded by natural dancer plus she's given choreo that doesn't suit her at all therefore she's stands out in different way.

Sm never openly saying that Karina is Main Dancer by the way heck even aespa members themselves that saying that they don't have any fix positions. I think SM decided to push her because she's the member who fits ai concept the most. I mean basically aespa concept is centered around Karina.

the criticism is valid but honestly people become too harsh of it. Do you guys realize that this will make her lose confidence? Karina always trying her best and open up with the criticism she got. I blame SM since they keep setting her up. This was the third time of it. Mr. simpleisbest need to be gone but SM still keeping him and put him as aespa's performance director. When you know the director can't even bring the strength of the performers aespa can't do much about it.

Quote from SooYoung

but based on he little thing we saw, she have a much bigger potential to be a better dancer in contemporary and ballet than yeji, ryujin etc... who based on what we saw are mostly train in more hip hop style dance

Maybe in ten years. Also she needs Yeji and Ryujin stop dancing. Maybe then

I quite enjoyed Karina's performance she's really beautiful to watch and I agree people are only trolling on her because she's very popular. Karina is not a bad dancer at all and until recently people came to the same conclusion Aespa were not good singers it's almost like people need immediate validation after debuting that a group especially big 3 groups are perfection. The same critique was said about Seulgi for a long time too. Just watching some of Karina's and Winter's predebut dance videos it's clear they're really talented and deserving of their position. I guess SM is taking their time with the more intense choreographs like they did vocally

Well compared to other SM main dancers or other group's in general she is not memorable. Her solo performances are not as impressive imo, but she still has room to grow.

The people I saw where criticising the choreo in MAMA not karina.

Ryujin and Yeji have very impressive choreos, facial expressions and stage presence which compensate for their shortcomings while Karina's choreographies seem bland imo.

That's not her completely fault tho.

I think she’s just not a natural dancer… SM trained her to do the best with Aespa’s dances.

Change the style a little bit and she’ll struggle.

Quote from SooYoung

disagree that's the biggest BS that Kpop fans are spreading, main dancer are just the best dancer of the group

and that's a big BS that kpop fans limits being a good dancer to only hip hop based dance choregraphy

Karina have a lot of strenght to make of her a great main dancer, and i always find weird how people generalize who's a good dancer to just one dance style '-'

maybe karina isn't the best hip hop dancer

but based on he little thing we saw, she have a much bigger potential to be a better dancer in contemporary and ballet than yeji, ryujin etc... who based on what we saw are mostly train in more hip hop style dance

so i find his really weird how people say she's not a good dancer just because she doesn't master hip hop dance as well than other

when she have much more training in other dance than other main dancer of other groups

being a great dancer isn't limited to only 1 dance style, and that's seems to be a little too hard to understand for kpop fans

and Karina also proved with her bola rebola cover that when she got a dance who highlight her strenght she's able to also do well in more hip hop style dance

Display More

It's not really about being good in only one dance style though. Main dancers are supposed to be great at dancing in general and can show aptitude in multiple dance styles. Momo, Lisa, Seulgi, Hyoyeon, Chaeryeong etc. Have dance styles they specialise in (mostly hip hop) but they've all shown talent to adapt to different dance styles and are great dancers overall.

Even when it comes to main dancers who were trained and specialised in contemporary/ballet like Jimin, they're still able to pull off other styles.

I do think it's a stretch to say Karina doesn't deserve her main dancer position because I do think she's the best dancer in the group along with Winter but she is clearly not as good as other main dancers and that's ok.

She's still a rookie and has plenty of time to improve but SM isn't doing her any favours by continuing to push her in hip hop styles that she's not confident in.