Dance competition show 'Stage Fighter' to shed light on classical genres

From left, ballet choreographer Ryu Hoi-woong, K-pop singer Kang Daniel, producers Kwon Young-chan and Choi Jeong-nam, dancers Jung Bo-kyung, Kim Joo-won and Choi Soo-jin pose during the press conference for the new survival show, “Stage Fighter,” held at Hotel Eliena in Gangnam District, Seoul, Tuesday. Courteys of CJ ENM

Mnet has launched a new dance competition show, "Stage Fighter," exploring the lesser-known field of classical dance genres.

The new show, which will start airing Tuesday, invites 64 male performers in three classical dance genres: traditional Korean dance, ballet and contemporary.

The producers of the channel's previous hit dance survival shows "Street Woman Fighter" and "Street Man Fighter" also participated in the new project.

"There are a lot of excellent classical dancers in Korea. While they're performing in various countries and building remarkable reputation globally, there are aspects that the general public are not well aware of," the show's chief producer, Kwon Young-chan, said during the press conference for the show, held at Hotel Eliena in Gangnam District, Seoul, Tuesday.

"With this show, we wanted to introduce these charming dancers and make them reach a wider public audience. So we started this hoping to help create a fan base for each dancer."

The show features both well-established and up-and-coming dancers. Through auditions, the participants will be divided into three classes of hierarchy — First, Second and Under.

For each round of performances, they compete to take the spot for First, which is only available to one of them. K-pop artist Kang Daniel, who was the presenter of the previous "Street Fighter" shows, will stay on as the host for the new show.

Poster for the show "Stage Fighter" / Courtesy of CJ ENM

The show's producer, Choi Jeong-nam, revealed that she incorporated the hierarchy system traditionally used in classical dance into the staging of the show.

"We brought the existing hierarchy and role (assigning) structure that dance companies have into our program. We have divided the roles on stage into main, supporting and ensemble. So you can think of it as dancers waging war for hierarchy to take on the roles they desire," she said.

"Before each performance, there will be a casting audition, where (the participants) will battle for the roles."

Although classical dance forms are less familiar to the general public compared to hip-hop and street dance, the producer emphasized that she aimed to captivate the audience by showcasing the visual elements of these genres at the start of the survival show.

"As we were developing this show, our biggest concern was that the public would consider this a difficult genre (of dance). So for our first mission, we decided on the keywords' physical' and 'technique'. We believed that if we could demonstrate technique based on fundamentals, we would be able to convince the viewers," she said.

Kang, who studied contemporary dance in high school, said the new show will have a very different tone from the "Street Fighter" series.

"(The dance moves) are more acrobatic and technical, which is truly captivating. All of the dancers exude classical elegance, so it even made me feel a sense of reverence," he said.

"This time, (unlike in previous shows), I tried to keep my breathing concise and use a calm tone of voice. Since this one doesn't have live, battle format competitions, I changed the tone of my voice and pacing to sound more like making announcements in a theater or concert hall."