TWS member JIHOON, who loves dancing so much he hung a mirror on his wall so he could practice in his spare time, has his own impressive way of dancing for 42, the fandom that “completes” him, alongside the other five members of TWS, his ultimate source of courage. We asked the idol about his experiences with dancing, the secret to his happiness—from the freestyle dancing he does for 42 on Weverse LIVE to the wealth of different styles, like hip hop, contemporary dance, tutting, and krumping, he’s always striving to perfect.
Baby JIHOON’s parenting difficulty rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
JIHOON: I posted a video between promotions for the fans of me doing rhythmic gymnastics when I was little because I thought they might enjoy getting a glimpse of me as a kid. My sister was like, “JIHOON, the world needs to know you’ve been like this since you were little. Please upload it—I’m begging you!” I agreed to post it on the condition that I didn’t have to crop her out of the video. She was more flexible than I expected. (laughs) I was honestly a little surprised. And then DOHOON reenacted it perfectly, which I had no idea he was going to do. And that was a surprise, too, because he was really good. It was hilarious. (laughs)
Dancing teen
JIHOON: I became a trainee at a young age, meaning I started doing monthly evaluations pretty early on. I remember one time, I was last up for the hip hop evaluation, but then I had to go first for the contemporary dance evaluation immediately after. It was tough, to be honest, but the experience of switching genres in a flash like that was really fun. It helped me develop the concentration to get into the moment in a snap. It was fun getting to work through the different styles. And I ended up finding out that some of the dancers I’ve liked ever since I was little got their start with contemporary dance. Once I found that out, I took a look at their performances and could see how beautiful their movements were. I told myself, I gotta get as good as them, and got down to practicing. It makes me think of when I was in my first year of high school and I practiced for a bunch of different dance evaluations—specifically, the ones for contemporary and locking. Practicing for the locking one was the first time I ever tried dancing with a friend. It was the closest thing I ever experienced to what I imagined going to an art school must be like. That friend was training to become a dancer, and I still remember how we incorporated a bunch of pretty daring, almost acrobatic moves for the ending. Doing it with someone just as laser-focused on dance taught me a lot. It was an honor, really.
Training for tutting
JIHOON: I never even told the other members this before, but my training started with tutting.* I got started after seeing an older student perform a tutting routine at the end-of-semester show. And they gave me some advice: “Tutters have to be tough.” Those words have stuck with me to this day. (laughs) You have to move really fast at sharp angles when you’re tutting, and you can’t lose your energy while you’re doing it, so to practice having good control, I train like I'm alternating between long-distance running and sprinting. For example, if I’m training for an hour today, I’ll queue up a playlist of my favorite two- to two-and-a-half-minute songs on shuffle and spend each song doing a specific move—wrist exercises, leg raises, crunches, planking, or bridges. I even have a separate playlist just for training. If a four-minute song came up, I’d have to hold a plank for four minutes, you know? (laughs) Since that’s impossible, I mostly look for songs under two minutes and make a collection of those.
*Tutting: A dance technique inspired by ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and focused on creating geometric shapes, like straight lines, right angles, and rectangles, with the hands and arms.
Krumping era
JIHOON: If someone saw me dancing for the first time, they might assume my biggest asset is my strength, but I think it’s actually my flow and connections. When I reviewed my own performances, though, I thought, Am I making it too soft—relying too much on waves? So I’ve been exploring more ways to show my control. I’m heavily invested in krumping** these days. I wasn’t sure if it would suit me at first—like it wouldn’t fit with my personality. (laughs) But I realized it could have a huge impact on the choreography I’m looking to create, so I’ve been doing a deep dive on the style. I felt like I worked myself into a corner a few times recently while practicing, especially when I was freestyling. I decided I need to practice dancing in a way that’s a little more expressive and emotional to free myself of that. Even when I’m tutting, I found I could make my dancing way richer by mixing in just a little bit of krumping. Whenever I find an area I’m lacking in or feel like I want to push myself a little harder, I end up interested in a wider variety of styles.
**Krumping: Short for “Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise” to suggest a connection to religious faith, a new-school street dance with energetic, dramatic movements.
Personal growth is like a staircase
JIHOON: I realized while preparing for the Sparkling Blue promotional circuit that I was shooting way fewer dance covers than before. I was like, This isn’t right—my photo app should have more dance videos! (laughs) I organize videos on my computer—like, some month 2023, some month 2024—and when I looked through them all, I realized personal growth is like a staircase, where sometimes it goes up, but more often than not, it’s flat. Anyway, it’s never at a standstill. Sometimes I’ll get done with classes and just thinking about dancing is exhausting, but then I tell myself I’ve got to do it because if I wait for better circumstances or the best possible situation—telling myself I’ll dance when I feel better, or I’m wearing better clothes, or that I’ll organize the formation when I buy a new computer—then I won’t get any opportunity in the end. Even on really rough days when I think I can’t go on, I try anyway and end up pulling through in the end. And it’s fine even if nobody can see the effort I’m putting in. Expectations rise when you put effort into something, but in my case, expectations aren’t what drive me to work hard. But I always think about how to put in the hard work when it’s something for the group.
Dance challenges
JIHOON: I’m really grateful I get to do dance challenges with other artists, so I want to make the most of them. I usually don’t hold anything back since they’ve worked really hard to make it look good and I really want to do a good job since I’m doing it with them. I try to stay true to the original choreography and its culture as best I can. After KISS OF LIFE worked so hard for our challenge, I was really determined to give it my all for their “Sticky” challenge. I was like, They really went all out! I have to work really hard on this! There wasn’t much time to practice for NCT 127’s “Walk” challenge, but when the rest of my group was busy shooting something else, I said, Okay, I can squeeze this cover in! I watched their video right to the end to make sure I wouldn’t mess anything up. One challenge I’ll never forget was when I did the “Double Take” challenge with Lee Chae Yeon. I’ve always been a fan of her dancing, so working with her felt like such an honor. Even though the choreography’s super tricky, she was really dedicated to rehearsing. I was really grateful to her for that.
“Right now, I’m JIHOON, part of TWS”
JIHOON: When I’m dancing by myself, I’m focused less on details and more on the emotions or story I want to convey, along with the dynamics of the dance itself. But when it comes to practicing group choreography, the details feel more like a promise I’m keeping. In group choreo, you have to focus on the poses, angles, and every little detail. If we’ve decided to do something some way, then that’s how it’s got to be done. That’s the promise that everyone in the group made. And ever since joining TWS, when I’m dancing, I always think, I’m dancing for TWS right now. Right now, I’m JIHOON, part of TWS. That mindset helps keep me from running out of energy.
Performing at MMA 2024
JIHOON: We knew it’d get really tiring before our second dance break at MMA 2024, and I felt like we would need to gather our strength back up, so we made this part where we shout, “TWS (stomp stomp) fighting!” before we keep going. Even though we were exhausted, the group of us huddling together, shoulder to shoulder, and yelling “fighting” like that really gave us a boost. YOUNGJAE worked especially hard for that performance. His solo part combined litefeet, a kind of hip hop dance, with something like double Dutch jump rope, which can be hard to do onstage at first. If your foot gets caught on the rope, you’re done, so he worked hard on the timing with the people turning the ropes and on his jumps to make sure he wouldn’t trip up. We even had a backup plan in case he did. In that case, the plan was to skip that part and try something else, but even then, before we got onstage, we said, “No way—we can’t resort to plan B.” And DOHOON practiced the part where he yelled “make some noise” before we launched into “Double Take” over and over because he wanted to get it just right. He was really serious about rehearsing it—he even yelled louder on purpose. It was cute to watch, but it also made me think, Whoa, this guy’s a pro! (laughs)
With the other members of TWS
JIHOON: I think the first time the guys saw me was when I went to meet them or in a video on the trainee channel, but I’d actually seen them around a few times when I was still a trainee. They looked so happy, always sticking together like that. So when I was asked to join the TWS lineup, I was curious what the group was like—what kind of vibe they had—and that’s what made me say yes. As soon as we were together, it washed all my insecurities and preconceived ideas away. They told me they loved the choreography I made for “BFF,” even though I was so anxious making it, and seeing us all practicing together made me realize I could stop worrying and just show what I’d worked so hard for so long on. I felt like this was a group I could dance with. Even though the group’s fresh, youthful concept was initially outside of my comfort zone, and I knew it would be a challenge dancing in a way that’s different from my usual style, I still chose the group. The other members being there gave me courage. I feel proud of whatever kind of dance I’m doing when I’m doing it with them.
Watching KYUNGMIN dance
JIHOON: When we’re practicing, KYUNGMIN sometimes asks me how to do certain things, and I always want to be able to give him a helpful answer. I never used to think much when I danced so my answers weren’t that useful, but lately I spend a lot of time trying to think about how I can dance in a way that I can be consciously aware of what I’m doing. When I watch KYUNGMIN, I really hope he develops his own spark and I ask myself how I developed mine. It also makes me wonder if I still have it. It’s amazing how we influence each other back and forth like that while practicing. (laughs)
Dancing’s cool factor
JIHOON: My focus when I dance used to be on the effort, feeling happy, having fun, and just having a good time but lately it’s on the cool factor. I haven’t been able to show much of this side to 42 yet, but when I practice alone now, I’m trying to play up the cool factor and pay a little more attention to current trends. I’m constantly observing what kind of dances people are doing these days, their overall style, and even what kind of clothes they wear when dancing. I’m also taking a lot of notes on how dances that people find cool right now are made. I’m working towards my own satisfaction now, but whereas I used to be satisfied just through the act of dancing itself, now I want to concentrate on making the dance good. But, to be honest, it can almost be like torture. I’m not happy with dancing just by itself—I’m more ambitious about it now, and until it works, I keep looking for ways to improve by asking myself what the problem is and how it could be better. It’s a real headache sometimes, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. More than anything else, when I see top-notch dancers, they shine so brightly that I can’t even imagine the work they must have put in—and that’s what’s cool. I want to transcend just being good at dancing. I hope I can make people feel comforted, and other emotions, too, when they see me dance—just like I feel when I see those people dancing so brightly. So anyway, I’ll keep calm and carry on. (laughs)
42 and the courage to take risks
JIHOON: When I have to freestyle dance out of nowhere, it feels like diving into cold water, so most of the freestyle videos I post are ones I feel turned out well or were filmed when I was already plenty warmed up, but when I freestyled on Weverse LIVE, I said to myself, Let’s just dive right in and see what happens! 42 wanted to see it, and I figured if that’s what they wanted, I could just try it. I think they really fill me with a kind of courage. I’m so grateful for them. (laughs)
“Last Festival”
JIHOON: I was thinking about how I was going to be meeting 42 for the third time this year and how I really wanted to show them how much I’ve grown. With “Last Festival,” I wanted to capture that mix of emotions—feeling sad about saying goodbye for now but also excited and hopeful about meeting again soon. It was such a surreal feeling in real life, too. I kept thinking, Am I really about to become an adult? It didn’t feel real. Obviously I was excited, but I also felt a tinge of remorse, wondering if I could’ve been bolder before becoming an adult. But I’m also happy because I feel like all my hard work paid off and I shone brightly in my teens. (laughs)
Almost an adult
JIHOON: I want to spend an entire day at a jjimjilbang and see a late-night movie screening. (laughs) Most importantly, though, I want to devote even more of myself to singing and dancing, and compare myself to how I was back then. My commute was pretty long back when I was a trainee so my parents would give me a ride a lot. My mom used to tell me, “There’s still so much you don’t know. Some things you have to be an adult to understand. You’ll grow up more then.” I still don’t totally understand what she meant by that (laughs) but now that adulthood’s right around the corner for me, part of me is thinking, Time to find out for myself! I think the spectrum of what I’ll be able to express will grow even wider as I mature!
