“Street Woman Fighter 2” is an all-female dance survival franchise where eight dance crews fight to become Korea’s number one in 2023. Followed by season one’s success in 2021, the second season is special in that it features global dance crews from different countries. To introduce, the dance crews are 1 Million, Wolf’Lo, Deep N Dap, LadyBounce, BeBe, Tsubakill, Jam Republic, and Mannequeen. Among them, Tsubakill consists of Japanese members and Jam Republic consists of international members.
For each mission, the dance crews are ranked according to their performances. To avoid elimination, all crew members give their best starting from the first mission, filling the room with an intense and heated atmosphere. Afterall, the crews are one of the top in the scene, actively participating in not only South Korea but worldwide and thriving in their dance careers. What makes the show so entertaining is that seeing these top dancers battle against each other makes it hard to determine the winner.
Mission 2: “Class” is where dancers from each crew are divided into four ranks in order to create a dance video. Only one main dancer will be selected for each scene, with the rest as backups. Mission 2 shows that there are times when even if you may give your best, it will not always pay you off.
The choreography of the dance video was created by the dancers in each rank, and the dancer who performed best in the choreography would be selected as the main. During the show, there were cases in which the dancers voted for what they thought was the most simple ones or what would be most easy to copy so that they can become the main dancer for the song. In fact, some choreographies that all dancers thought was of high quality was soon rejected because they thought it would be too difficult to copy. Even to the viewers of the show, such cases were unfair to the dancers who have given their best. The professional dancers would have felt betrayal in return of their effort. Such an aspect is shown in life where there are times when you realize being “good” does not always lead to success, and something of which you need to endure and move forth.
Yet another difficulty or the confusion the dancers would have gone through is the dilemma between what is “commercial” to what is “real art.” For example, an easy and eye-catching movement would grab the attention from people and become a trend in social medias like Instagram Reels and TikTok. However, a comparatively unfamiliar genre of dance styles would be hard for the audience to understand and enjoy. Dancers, who have entered as another form of content for viewers to consume in YouTube, would have gone through some dilemmas, either to do what would bring a certain trend and popularity or to do something that they believe is of a professional, true art. In one rank during Mission 2, Momo and Yumeri from dance crew Tsubakill criticized dance crew Mannequeen members Waaackxxxy and Yoonji’s dance choreography which focused on simple and addictive dance movements for a possible TikTok trend. Momo and Yumeri believed professional dancers had to pursue different dance moves, something that is of true art. The fight between these two factors, commercial and art, continues as professional dancers closely interact via social media. Similar dilemma is applicable in other areas of art where they debate on whether to focus on getting the audiences’ attention or to pursue what they believe is of real value.
Nevertheless, the show “Street Woman Fighter” has been a huge commercial success, leading to “Street Man Fighter” dedicated for male dancers, and to the currently aired “Street Woman Fighter 2.” The dilemma between commercial success and true art must persist for a while, but during the show, the dancers on the scene will give the best they can and enjoy the passion they have chosen to do for the rest of their lives.