It’s that time of year again when we all reflect on the past 12 months in our own way. For our part, Weverse Magazine will be taking a look back at how different artists and their tireless staff spent 2022 with fans. We’ll be publishing articles for three weeks as the members of the staffs behind BTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, fromis_9 and LE SSERAFIM select their favorite music, videos, performances and other MOMENTs from working with the artists they support. This week we take a look at some of the performances these six groups have put on. For this fifth part, we talk to Shin Min Kyung, fromis_9’s performance director, to tell us all about “DM.” 

Why “DM” is fromis_9’s best performance the year

Shin Min Kyung (PLEDIS Performance Directing Team): I chose “DM” as fromis_9’s performance of the year because it shows a whole new side to the group. The choreography we’ve done for their songs before have often been lively and exciting, but “DM” did the best job of capturing just how mature the members have become. We paid a lot of attention to softening the dance moves and the looks they give through the whole song to really sell the idea of them growing from girls to women. And the reason the performance looks as good as it does is because they all put in a huge amount of effort to capture that feeling that’s in the choreography. They did a great job as always. (laughs)

fromis_9 speaks directly to flover in “DM”

Shin Min Kyung: “DM” gives off a feeling of winter or night and also longing plus something comforting. The song itself is such a mood that we really tried to work that feeling into the choreography. The dance opens with them appearing to awake from sleep, which I personally like because it really fits the mood of the song. The part where Jiwon sings, “wrap me in your arms,” and the members stand in a line with their arms around each other’s shoulders is especially lovely. I love that we could show the fans how tight the bond between fromis_9 is with this choreography. Hugging is one way we could show how close the members are with each other. I hope the fans take that idea away from it when they see it. The members even said things like, “I think I’m going to cry,” and, “This is so touching,” when they were practicing the dance. (laughs) I think they felt that way since that’s the part where the emotion in the song really swells and I think that’s also the reason the performance came across as well as it did.

Behind the scenes of “DM”

Shin Min Kyung: The members gave us a lot of ideas during practice and review while they were working on the performance for “DM.” They’ve got a lot of experience now and they all have a lot of ideas and opinions, so even while they’re practicing they talk about how they feel about the lyrics and how they think the song should be conveyed and they adjust it from there. Naturally I give them direction as well, but they also talk amongst themselves, like, “What if we try it this way?” Or, “Is my facial expression okay?” And sometimes they don’t look confident in the face even though they’re doing a good job with the choreography, and when that happens, they work to boost each other’s confidence. (laughs) When you hear someone say, “It’s okay,” or that you’re doing a good job, it boosts your confidence and that gives you a chance to improve even further. They’ve become the source of each other’s confidence.

One more thing: Their concert-opening performance of “Glass Shoes”

Shin Min Kyung: I remember thinking how if we were going to put on a concert then “Glass Shoes” would absolutely have to be the opening song. (laughs) I specifically thought it would be really cool to do an orchestral version for the opening to magnify the feeling. So the performance directing team gave them some ideas for the LOVE FROM. concert when it was coming together. I think their performance of “Glass Shoes” for that concert really conveyed the right feeling. The song’s exciting to begin with, but it’s also a very meaningful song because it’s the group’s pre-debut song. And since the group debuted five years ago and this was going to be their first time putting on a concert without any other artists, they naturally thought back to their performance of the song at 2017 MAMA when we were getting it ready. We tried to take all the energy from back then but also tried to give it a more professional and mature image to show how much the members have grown since then. I told them, “What if you got up on stage with the same mindset as a group that’s debuting but put on a pro-level performance?” And the members were all thinking the same thing. They paid attention to every single detail of the choreography and feedback while practicing to make sure the performance was perfect. It’s thanks to that that they had such a good performance to put on for the fans and I think the fact that “Glass Shoes” is such a special song in so many ways helped the members and fans all share the same feeling during the performance.

Hoping it will be memorable for flover

Shin Min Kyung: I don’t think you stop improving just because you’ve been around for a number of years. Some people might think growth is more an idea you associate with right after you debut, but I disagree. I think the most important thing is that we show the fans how the members keep growing, and that’s probably the thing they want to see most, too. The most important thing is that we keep making an effort to show that. “Glass Shoes” marks the start of fromis_9’s growth, and I think “DM” is when things really started to accelerate. The fact that both songs played such important roles makes them more meaningful and that made these performances their best of the year.