A line of students eagerly waited outside the doors of the Kaufman School of Dance Friday afternoon. Dancer and choreographer Aiki arrived, not hesitating to come close to the courtyard’s tables to greet and take pictures with students. If there was anything to take away from the interaction, it’s that dance and K-pop continues to transcend continental distance and language barriers.

Kaufman partnered with the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles to present a K-Pop Academy on USC’s University Park Campus. Dancer and choreographer Aiki, along with HOOK dance crew member Odd, participated in a weeklong residency for Kaufman dance majors.

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Oct. 25 and 27, the wider USC student population were able to participate in dance workshops and watch a conversation with the artist, moderated by Clinical Assistant Professor of Communication Hye Jin Lee.

Aiki is a dancer and choreographer best known for her appearances on the popular Korean dance reality television show “Street Woman Fighter,” as well as other South Korean television programs. She’s choreographed for numerous well-known K-pop groups such as BTS’s #Move4Gen1 dance challenge for the song “I’m On It,” Refund Sister’s “Don’t Touch Me” and Jessi’s “Cold Blooded.”

With a combined Instagram and TikTok following of over 4.4 million, she has an established online platform. The first official visit to Los Angeles in general, she said, has been “her best experience” so far.

“[I’m] thankful that [I] have the opportunity to show Korean culture and to continue the interest in Korean culture and entertainment,” Aiki said.

Last year, KCCLA hosted the first K-Pop Festa on campus, featuring performances by K-pop stars Kim Sejeong and Kingdom, a dance competition and an academic forum analyzing the trends of K-pop.

At first, Aiki said she was worried about the level of interest in K-pop or K-pop dance, but she quickly learned of the students’ interest and passion for Korean dancers. One such interested student was Blake Levins, a sophomore majoring in international relations global business. Levins is supportive of the collaborations between the KCCLA and USC, praising them as “really awesome.” 

“Because L.A. has such a big Korean population in Koreatown, I think it really helps to bring artists from Korea to the community. It keeps dialogues going and gives more ways that are affordable and accessible to people to access Korean culture,” Levins said.

Levins met Aiki this past summer while studying abroad in Korea. As a dancer on USC’s Chaotic 3 team, he followed Aiki after being inspired by her uplifting energy on “Street Woman Fighter.”   

“I’m trying to do as much hip hop dance I can, especially in the community and engaging with other choreographers that I’m excited to see what her style will be like, because she’s very expressive and her dance team is very much focused on performance and telling a story through their movement,” Levins said. “And I really admire the way that she choreographs and teaches and also the way she engages with her students.”

Aiki also credits “Street Woman Fighter” for exposing street dance culture to mainstream Korean and global audiences. Through her participation, she was able to see how great it was to be a dancer.

“[I’m] really proud of [my] team,” AIki said. “[I] realized that it’s really hard to assess your ability unless there’s a competition like this. So through this competition, [I] realized how strong [my] team is and is thankful that [I] had an opportunity to learn the value of [my] team.”

Though she started her career conventionally later than other dancers, she’s been successful regardless. As a result, she advises young dancers to never give up on their dreams because the opportunity to achieve them might come around.

“I think opportunities like this are going to be more and more frequent at USC, and it’s very exciting because we’re becoming more of a global school,” Harshini Karthikeyan, a sophomore majoring in business administration, said.

Karthikeyan looked up to Aiki as a choreographer and was pleased with USC for providing the opportunity to meet and see professional choreographers like her. She believes these events are a positive sign for more similar programming in the future.

“It’s inspirational because Aiki is also demonstrating how dance is a very global language and you don’t really need to just speak an actual language to communicate, because movement is how she communicates with us,” Karthikeyan said.

For the wider USC community who are interested in K-pop, Aiki prepared dance sequences for her Friday workshop that are accessible for casual fans. The set consisted of popular K-pop songs so the audience could learn the important aspects of the choreography for enjoyment — a key aspect of who Aiki is as a dancer.

“[I’m] always striving to provide a very unique performance,” Aiki said. “[I’m] hoping that people can remember [me] as somebody who’s different and who’s brought a lot of fun and joy into dance.”