Interview with Undong Crew
Undong crew is a K-pop dance cover group from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. I had the opportunity to interview a few of the members.
Here’s how Undong Crew came to be:
Undong Crew is based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. For now we have a total of 10 members. Originally our group name was “WALLRIDE”, that was the name we used for our first stage since we were supposed to be a “one time” dance cover group. We covered Seventeen’s “Mansae” with a total of 12 members on “The K-Pop Challenge 3.0” on the 13th of March of this year. Since the audience’s reaction to us was so good we decided to stay together, but changing our name to one that suited us better, that’s when Undong Crew was born, right after our first stage. From then until now we’ve received a lot of love and support from local KPOP fans and the international KPOP community too, which we are really thankful for.
The six members of Undong Crew performing this Sunday September 25th at K-Pop Challenge.
Drey: Introduce yourself to our audience.
Karen Alanis: Undong Crew started as a KPOP dance cover group, and since then we’ve been developing our skills to improve in different areas, and believe me we’ve been working HARD. Up to now we’ve been focused mainly on KPOP cover contests but we are looking forward to try new things. That’s what I can say about Undong Crew as a Group, but personally for me is more than that. We all have this special friendship bond that I can tell I don’t have with any other person, with them I’m able to share the passion we all have for dancing and music, I’m able to share the stage, the pain during rehearsals, and more that’s what makes Undong Crew so special for me.
Drey: How long have you’ve been dancing?
Gaby Martinez: I started dancing folklore back in elementary school when I was 10 years old, I spend around 3 years doing that, then after turning 14 I started doing Jpop dance covers, but it was after a year later that I started doing KPOP dance covers. My very first stage was on 2010 with SHINee’s “Lucifer” and since then I haven’t stopped dancing.
Drey: How long have you’ve been apart of the Undong crew?
Anakaren Landeros: I officially became a part of the group on August 9th, 2016. Although I auditioned and became a part of the 2nd generation, and as soon as I joined I started training and preparing for our next project. I wasn’t really nervous since I already knew most of the members but I do was nervous about the training since the audition day was kind of tough.
Drey: What does a typical week of rehearsal look like for you?
Yi Gomez: For us a typical rehearsal begins warming-up since we try to avoid injuries, after that, if we are preparing for a competition we make sure everyone learns the choreography and then we clean the choreo, if we aren’t preparing to compete we have mini dance classes prepared by our teacher or by the members themselves.
Drey: What is it like working with the other member of Undong Crew?
Cynthia Gonzalez: Working with U.C can be a hard task since we have so many members, but at the same time I can tell that’s what make us different from other groups. Having so many members has become our strength. Because all of our members have different personalities, ideas and dance styles we can create more unique performances, split into units or just try new stuff. Working with U.C is a great experience, I can confidently say, there’s no other group like Undong Crew.
Drey: What is the most challenging part of being a dancer? What is the most rewarding part of being a dancer?
Josh Gonzalez: Hmm…personally the most challenging thing of being a dancer, at least in the “KPOP” category, is to really understand what the choreography is going to need…you can’t just copy and emulate the idol, you need to practice, train, make an effort and understand what you need to learn to make a good performance; sadly that’s something you can’t learn un just a couple of days or a week, it’s something that takes years of training, and that’s what most of us have been learning since we got together (as a group), to learn more about the dance style, about how some of the steps came out… so yeah, learn the most we can and warming-up will be the most challenging thing for me. The most rewarding thing will be when you put a lot of effort and dedication on the performance to see how the crowd applauds all the sweat you dropped on stage, it’s amazing and beautiful when we get positive comments; that motivate us to stay together, the crowd/audience/fans are the best reward we can get.
Drey: Why did Korean music become a focal point for Undong crew?
Yi Gomez: Korean music became our priority because most of us listened to KPOP and used to do a lot of dance covers before being part of Undong Crew, but although or priority it’s KPOP we are also interested on entering other types of competitions that are not KPOP related.
Drey: What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not rehearsing or creating dance videos?
Gaby Martinez: Generally if I have free time I spend it on YouTube, I follow various vloggers, I can spend hours watching their videos or just watching the dance versions of different KPOP or JPOP MVs, I can, literally, spend my whole day doing that. Another thing I also like to do is watch anime, kdramas or TV series, and my guilty pleasure is reading fanfics, I’ve actually read a lot of those, and I’m not planning on stopping soon, but no shame AHAHAHAHA
Drey: Which K-pop group do you like the most?
Anakaren Landeros: My favorite KPOP group is Girls’ Generation, I love all of them, but Hyoyeon’s my favorite.
Drey: How does it feel to soon be performing on the K-pop challenge 4.0 stage?
Josh Gonzalez: I can tell right now I’m not felling nervous about it but the anxiety appears right before going on stage, just as if it was my very first time doing it but I think more than being nervous I feel excited to go on stage and listen to the crowd screaming and applauding, I’m also excited to see the other groups work. I really can’t wait for the day of the event because it’s a great experience and most of the times we get back with a smile on our faces and more feedback on what to change for the next time we go onstage, even right now I’m thinking about how to get ready for our next stage hahaha.
Drey: What is your favorite performance as a group so far?
Karen Alanis: Up to now my favorite performance is “Mansae”, because it was our first stage we worked really hard to show something the audience would enjoy. At that time our objective was to give the audience five minutes that will make them forget about everything, we wanted to show a contagious stage with overflowing energy, which I think we were able to achieve.
Follow Undong Crew on Instagram and Twitter
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For Business Inquires email
undongcrew@outlook.com
Undong Crew will be performing Sunday September 25th K-pop Challenge – Dare To Dance. You can still buy tickets even at the box office when you arrive. Contact the staff from K-pop Challenge – Dare To Dance Facebook page or email them at kpopchallenge@gmail.com for more information.
