Loving the idols, honoring the choreographers: Making of a K-pop cover

Nine K-pop cover dance teams from across the United States gathered in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Oct. 3, competing for prize money and a chance to perform alongside the K-pop artists they had spent years watching from afar. The competition was part of the Gangnam Festival's Global K-Pop Cover Dance Championship. The dancers came from varied backgrounds. Some had years of dance experience before finding K-pop; for others, K-pop was how they got introduced to dance. Several had been performing c