Sultry. One word to describe Taemin’s performance in his new track, “Move." Also sexy, seductive, sensual. I could go on. But I digress.
Released on Monday, October 16th, “Move” instantly landed on my radar. SM Entertainment dropped three accompanying music videos, a regular MV, a solo performance video and a duo performance video.
The duo version, the best of the three in my opinion, shows Taemin dancing alongside choreographer, Koharu Sugawara. She has worked with Taemin before, specifically on his Japanese single, “Goodbye.” She also was his partner when he performed on the dance survival show, Hit the Stage.
In addition to the choreography, I also very much enjoyed the song. “Move” is uniquely arranged, with a beat reminiscent of late 80s/early 90s western pop music. The song has a resounding bass line that pulses like a heartbeat throughout. It overwhelms all other instruments and creates an ominous hum underneath Taemin’s vocals. He sings “Your moves captivate me under the dark lights, with this strange feeling, this breathtaking attraction.” To me these lyrics, reinforced by the instrumentals, tell the story of an almost obsessive fascination with someone.
Much of the choreography mimics this pulsating beat, with slow and measured contractions of the body.
There are moments of uptempo choreography, but even as the song reaches its climax, the dancers return to the beat of the bass line.
Koharu's choreography includes many stylized movements like this one. Although each movement of Taemin’s is tightly controlled, I found that I kept staring at his hands. They were kept loose, almost lifeless. Since there appears to be no energy through the hands, they were often the last body part to move, dragged along as an after thought.
Effectively, when Taemin and the dancers execute moves like this one below, the hands act as accents to the movements.
It’s an interesting stylistic choreography choice. In this dance, there is far more emphasis on the motion of the upper body than lower body, which means the movement of the hands is intentional. To me, it translates well into the mood of the piece, which is effortlessly seductive.
These hand flips, for lack of a better term, are reminiscent of certain styles of voguing. Voguing is a type of dance that was popularized in the 80s in New York City, which fits nicely with the nostalgic sound of "Move." It was used primarily in the ballroom scene, which is a huge subculture of the LGBTQ community. Balls are events in which contestants 'walk,' or compete, against each other using style, dance, and attitude. Voguing is commonly used in these competitions.
Some elements of this type of dancing include hand poses or hand performance, duck walking, spinning, and cat-walking.
Voguing broke into the mainstream when Madonna released the song "Vogue" in 1990, along with a music video filled with hand poses.
Overall, I think it is Taemin's attitude, simply confident, that draws the most influence from vogue. Almost never breaking eye contact with the audience, Taemin challenges the viewer to look away from his performance and yield to him.
In the Duo version of the MV, Taemin and Koharu really embrace the androgynous aesthetic. Unlike Taemin’s female backup dancers in the other two versions, Koharu is styled in gender fluid clothes, matching Taemin.
This androgyny extends to the dance itself. Many so-called ‘sexy’ dances are purposefully meant to entice the opposite sex but “Move” is sexy without appealing to any one gender. Any person could find Taemin or Koharu (or both) sexy, because their dance, as well as their styling, is not confined to the rigid guidelines of what makes someone attractive in a dual gender world.
This performance simply showcases Taemin’s skills and honestly, suits him better than many of his other dances. “Move” is a great piece of choreography by Koharu and wonderfully executed by Taemin.