Club Lollipop @ the Anime Expo 2014 Dance Battles!

July 12, 2014 bee. 0 Comments

There were 20+ semi-finalists that passed the preliminary round via video entry. From 60+, Club Lollipop was selected to be a part of this event! Most of the people stuck to the hip-hop side of K-pop and there were only a few that went a sexy route, like us! Also, there were a lot of solos and mostly danced to songs that were new and familiar. Less than a handful, including us, used a song from pre-hallyu (era when K-pop was not popular outside Korea or in America). I also felt like were the only super colorful group because almost everyone went from black and white or all black. And that we were the only group that paid attention to getting dolled up... People may have thought we were "all fluff", but our skills got ourselves to move forward to the finals the next day! Weeew! Truthfully, I didn't think we would make it in the finals. Based on my experience from last year, I know there was only three finalists. So when they said entry number 20 as the first number to be a part of the finalists, we couldn't believe it. Sadly, other people were quiet about it too. Ha! I should have more faith in myself and my group! Anyways, I was overjoyed that we were in the list of finalists! Then suddenly, we were struck with worry. Not only did we have to practice for the J-pop dance, we have to decide what to perform for the finals and create blocking for it! Instead of partying that night, we went to the gym of our hotel (Residence Inn, LA Live) to practice until midnight!

The J-pop category of the dance battle was new/less popular to Anime Expo, which contradicts the convention. Anime is basically Japanese, so why is K-pop the main/bigger dance battle event compared to the J-pop one? Well, I guess because K-pop is currently widespread around the world, including LA. Anyways, the was less than ten contestants and again, Club Lollipop was in that list. Most of the contenders were dressed up with a cosplay theme or maid theme. At this event, Club Lollipop went black & white...and even got mistaken present for the K-pop competition (we were, but that's for later). We went the total opposite of the tide, once again..which made us stand out. Teehee. Anyways, WE WON FIRST PLACE! Yup, we were the declared winners of the first Anime Expo J-Pop Dance Battle! You know what's even more awesome? Some people went in the competition with fans and we didn't. But we got a really loud applause after our performance and an even louder cheer when we were announced as the winners. We aren't youtube famous (at the moment..lol), but we were the team that no one expected to go on and take the gold! Who cares about subscribers and fans, when you lack in talent?! This is why I push everyone I train/teach really hard! And I'm thankful that my efforts and my team's efforts were noticed and paid off. Yup, we got compliments after the K-pop Semi-Finals around the convention and even more after the J-pop contest? Do we do this a lot??? Nope. But I love to perform on stage and will work hard to be as entertaining and worthy of the stage as possible! After winning this event, we had several pictures taken with our award and the special judge! She didn't mind all the posing, hehe! I will post it all in another blog post!

Thanks for reading!

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