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The story
Choreographer RENAN sparked discussion on 5ch’s Hello! Project board after remarking, on the subject of Juice=Juice’s new single choreography, “Put strong-weak contrast into the dancing — Juice=Juice should be able to pull it off. That’s what makes the choreography look unified; if it’s just non-stop intensity, it ends up as nothing more than ‘well, they’re trying hard.’” Many commenters on the thread engaged with the remark on its own terms as a point of choreographic technique, discussing the dance skills of current members and reminiscing about past members’ dancing. At the same time, the conversation branched out into the difficulty of reconciling Hello! Project’s reliance on live vocals with dance intensity, and into differences in choreographic tendencies compared with K-pop idols.
What people said
She was the one carrying the dancing.
If they can pull it off, Hello! Project should be able to too.
Singing live does limit the dancing quite a bit, though.
Seriously cute.
that singing is about strong-weak, even medium-strong-weak dynamics. (Sabu-chan: nickname for a veteran singer)
Taken separately, Korean acts are better at dancing alone or singing alone
but they can’t dance while singing.
I couldn’t agree with that at all, lol
That mindset only worked back in the Momoiro Clover days
it’s not acceptable anymore.
What have they even been taught this whole time, from trainee days up to now?
that’s Juice’s weak point right there.
they’d have to drop the singing and switch to sneakers.
JUICE really ought to ditch those super thick-soled high heels already
the moment you’re wearing shoes like that, it’s obvious you’re not seriously planning to dance.
They don’t need to dance seriously anyway.
Can she even keep up?
Once she got back to Japan and rejoined, she handled it like it was nothing — still a frighteningly talented presence as ever.
Obviously, Teacher RENAN choreographs on the assumption that they’ll be singing live.
The moment you catch yourself thinking “wait, can they even sing through this?!”—
that’s probably already the gap with Korea right there.
#JuiceSummerCamp
— turns out Hello! Project didn’t even get that basic point, lol
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Juice=Juice belongs to Hello! Project, and on stage their choreography is generally built around the assumption that they’ll be singing live. This stands in contrast to the approach taken by many K-pop idols, who make room for intense dancing by also relying on backing tracks or pre-recorded vocal/chorus tracks. The thread’s discussion grows out of this difference in constraints — essentially, doing double duty with live singing and dancing at once. Choreographer RENAN’s comment reflects a basic principle of choreography: that clear contrast between strong and weak movement directly affects how unified and visually striking a routine looks. Most commenters on the thread accepted this point as being about dance technique itself, though the conversation also drifted into posts comparing members’ looks and ranking them against K-pop idols. One thing readers can easily get wrong here is assuming “intense” means “skilled” — in fact, it’s the ability to shape strong-weak contrast that’s being evaluated as the real technical skill, a basic concept commonly taught in dance instruction.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “RENAN: ‘Put strong-weak contrast into the dancing. Juice=Juice should be able to do it. That’s what makes the choreography look unified — if it’s just intensity, it ends up as nothing more than “well, they’re trying hard.”’”
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