By Mary O’KEEFE

For centuries art has brought people together. It is the one thing that can lift people above the political debate and bring cultures together. That was evident during a recent lunchtime break at Rosemont Middle School when a K-Pop group from the University of Minnesota performed for seventh and eighth graders.

K-Pop, or Korean Pop, is music that was first made popular in South Korea. It is a style of music that is accompanied by dance and has swept the world, including the United States, in part to groups like Blackpink and BTS.

“K-Pop always comes with a [dance] performance,” said Volcano Kim, manager of the K-Pop group MKPC [Minnesota K-Pop Crew] that performed at the school last week.

The crew has won several awards including taking first and second place in this year’s USA Champion-K-Pop Cover Dance Festival.

“[MKPC] is a student organization,” Kim said.

The organization is composed of students, grad students and alumni from U of M. Kim is a Ph.D. student who is the manager of the crew and travels with them. There were five members at Rosemont, but there are about 20 members total. The members are from diverse cultures and Kim said that she has noticed how popular K-Pop has become.

“It has been a very positive thing,” Kim said of traveling across the country with the dance crew. She added at first when the group would perform those in the audience were not sure of the genre.

“There were a lot of confused looks but now groups like BTS have made it more popular,” she said.

There was no confusion at Rosemont. Students cheered and danced along with MKPC. Olivia Lee, a seventh grader, knew all the words and dance moves.

“I am in a dance club [at Rosemont],” Lee said.

At the performance ended Lee asked the group if they could stay and visit her dance club. But the dancers had to catch a plane back to Minnesota right after the performance.

Lee was happy she was able to meet the dancers and see them perform. She said she will take the memory, and the choreography, back to her Rosemont dance club.

The K-Pop visit was part of several visits that took place throughout Glendale Unified School District. Members of the Korean consulate were on hand at the schools to share the cultural experience.

  Mary Okeefe