World's top dance crews face off in Seoul on Saturday

Connor Lim, sixth from left, co-founder and CEO of the International Dance League, poses for a photo with participating teams during a press conference marking the league's Seoul event at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun, Friday. Yonhap

Elite dance crews from around the world will battle it out in Seoul through the International Dance League (IDL), as the Seoul Series, the fourth stop of the league's 2026 season, takes place Saturday at Kyung Hee University.

Launched in 2025, IDL is the world's first global professional dance league, with six franchise teams competing across a regular season for the IDL 2026 Championship title. The league has sold out all three of its previous series in New York, Vancouver and Sydney, surpassing 600 million cumulative views and impressions worldwide.

Ahead of the Seoul opener, the league gathered IDL co-founder and CEO Connor Lim and the competing teams at a hotel conference room in central Seoul on Friday to share what audiences can expect.

For Lim, a dancer since the age of 13, the league is about reframing how dance is seen.

"Dance has been on reality TV shows for a very long time, but not presented as a sport," Lim said. "We are controlling all of the creative, all of the sporting aspects and the way that the dancers are represented ... the way that we believe dance should be represented as a sport on a global scale."

Connor Lim, co-founder and CEO of the International Dance League, speaks during a press conference marking the league's Seoul event at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun, Friday. Yonhap

Under the league's two-part format, teams accumulate points through the regular season to determine their standings, which decide the seeding for the championship event set for Sept. 20 in Los Angeles.

"The championship event is a free-for-all in the sense that anybody can be the champion of the IDL if they win," Lim said. "So now we're seeing a lot of strategy developing across the teams to see where and who they want to go up against in that first round."

The biggest draw of the Seoul Series is the matchup between Korea's 1MILLION and Singapore-based Jam Republic. Both teams have collaborated with K-pop artists and made a strong impression on Korean fans through Mnet's "Street Woman Fighter" series. They will meet for the first time this season in Round 1.

Lia Kim, leader and co-founder of 1MILLION, said hosting the league on home soil carries special weight.

"From the moment I heard the league was first starting, I thought creating it was a wonderful thing," she said. "We wanted it to be loved by fans around the world, and I am glad it is taking place at a time when interest in dancers is growing within Korea as well."

"Home-ground matches matter in baseball and soccer too," she added. "We want to carry that meaning and show something great."

Lia Kim, left, leader and co-founder of Korean dance team 1MILLION, listens as team captain Jonah Aki speaks during a press conference marking the International Dance League's Seoul event at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun, Friday. Korea Times photo by Pyo Kyung-min

1MILLION sits second in the league with 17 points, while Jam Republic is fourth with 13. GRV of the United States follows with 15 points, New Zealand's Royal Family with 12 and Norway's Quick Style with 9, leaving every team outside of frontrunner Brotherhood locked in a race separated by just 8 points.

League leader Brotherhood, undefeated at 42 points, drew attention after winning the Vancouver Series with a performance set to NSYNC's "I Want You Back." The routine has since gone viral, with K-pop stars including BTS member) J-Hope and Jung Kook joining the ensuing dance challenge.

Lim called Korea a natural home for the league's first venture into Asia, citing 1MILLION's role as a founding franchise, the strength of the local dance scene shaped by K-pop and the city's accessibility within the region.

"Even with the first event, there were people flying here from Japan, people flying here from Hong Kong," he said. "We believe Korea is a really good jumping-off point and a really good place to set our roots."

The official poster for the International Dance League's (IDL) 2026 Seoul Series, set for Saturday at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace in Seoul / Courtesy of IDL

The CEO noted that the relationship between K-pop and the league's dancers runs deep.

"Every single one of these teams has choreographed for the biggest K-pop artists," he said. "A lot of the dancers and the talent you see here today have worked in the background for all of these artists ... That's what the IDL is bringing, for you to see the talent that these dancers have, and for them to now be the stars."

As for whether dance can be judged objectively as a sport, Lim was unfazed.

"This is just the same as figure skating, surfing, skateboarding and all the other Olympic sporting events that have judges and criteria," he said.

The IDL Seoul Series begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.