[In Focus] Park Jimin’s dance appreciation, a literary analysis

I’m a 21-year-old French girl, and I’ve been going, during those last 3 years, through a particular kind of literary studies. To sum up a little, it’s a general teaching in various subjects, after having graduated in high school, but much harder than in university. So to say, I can basically handle a literary discussion.

Take this blog as a sort of basic introduction to literary analysis, through the figure of a dancer. I just want to share with you how literature changed my perception of things, along with Kpop.

A little disclaimer before I properly start my analysis: I am fully aware that Jimin is also a singer, however, his artistic education was a dancer’s one, he seems to think about dance, what it means to him, what he wants to convey through it. Even if he sings, his first way of expressing himself is dance, so I’m only going to analyse his way of dancing. Let’s get started!

First, one of the major aspects of Jimin’s dancing is, obviously, its sensuality. His style is very smooth, seductive, as clear as water, as hot as fire. I am talking about sensuality, not sexuality here, remember. When he initiates a move, he translates a whole experience, a whole future. Behind each movement is a physical and emotional future. We can find something similar in French literature, with the famous (for French people) “Mignonne, allons voir si la rose” by Pierre de Ronsard. Let me write the first verses of this emblematic poem:

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose

Qui ce matin avoit desclose

Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,

A point perdu ceste vesprée

Les plis de sa robe pourprée,

Et son teint au vostre pareil.

 

If you listen to these verses (you can find the poem on YouTube), don’t you think there’s something about the mouth’s movements too? Yes, when you pronounce the words, you can have the impression that your lips form…a kiss. Yes, a kiss. These sounds are called labial sounds, all the French “p”, “b”. There are also a lot of “l” and “o”, completing the imitation of a kiss. But when you read the poem, you’re only reading the description of a rose to compliment a woman’s beauty. That’s what’s magic about poetry, and literature in general, you can say a lot more than what’s written. In this poem, Ronsard tells the woman he loves that her beauty won’t last forever, and because of this, she must enjoy her youth and accept his love. Reading this poem is forming on your lips the future Ronsard wanted with Cassandre, he wanted to kiss her and love her.

The same goes with Jimin’s movements. I’m not saying that he wants to do you-know-what with everyone, no, I’m just saying he is able to imply so much more than what’s he’s dancing at the moment. His movements carry a lot more than you think. Just as Ronsard’s words carry the weight of a waiting love, Jimin’s dancing carries big, fundamental and primitive forces (in a good meaning) : love, will, anger, fight… This is why his dancing is so powerful, because it implies powerful thematics and feelings.

Talking about fighting, the other aspect I want to show in this analysis is the role of Jimin’s dancing in the message conscious Kpop intends to convey. We all know that a lot of BTS’ songs were written with social undertones, the name of ARMY itself aims at a specific public, youth, defended by BTS. But what if I told you that Jimin’s dancing is also a way for youth to feel represented?

In 1926, Ernest Hemingway published one of his most famous novels, “The sun also rises”. In this novel, a group of friends, lost between the two world wars, trapped in a changing world, experiments a new life in Europe (rough summary, shame on me). There’s a scene that reminds me of Jimin when he dances. It’s a bull-fighting scene (corrida). During the fight, the friends are taken aback by the presence of the bull-fighter, there’s an implicit epiphany. The fight becomes a representation of their own fight to find their place in the world. The Lost Generation, in which Hemingway took part, finds its epitomization in the toreador. They have found their symbol against the sense of dislocation, disillusionment and anxiety.

The same thing happens when I’m watching Jimin dancing. Just as bull-fighting, dance is a ritualized art, aiming at being meaningful. This art can be violent, but it’s always to show something. When Jimin dances, he does the exact same thing as the toreador: he endorses a whole generation’s sense of void to change it into something meaningful and beautiful. Jimin becomes the XXIth century’s Lost Generation’s hero, his dancing becomes our catharsis. Just seeing him dancing on “Lie”…he’s explicitly fighting against something, we can easily relate to him. When he fights against the lie, he encapsulates all our fights. This takes place in the dawning conscious Kpop, in which artists convey an increasing number of important messages that the world has to listen to. Kpop is such a wonderful way of promoting art, artists don’t necessarily have to sing to convey their messages, they can also dance, just like Jimin and many others. I’m not saying that Jimin is the only one to do this, but his dancing makes me feel things I didn’t know I could feel through dance one day. And I can’t forget about the bull-fighter when I see him dancing. After all, if the bull wasn’t there, bull-fighting would be all about dance…

Note: This article was reposted with permission from Vaea's Amino.