The University of California, Riverside (UCR) gives students a space to freely express themselves and their personal interests. At the Student Recreation Center (SRC), this is seen significantly within each multi-purpose room (MPR) where students spend countless hours perfecting their work for their clubs. These MPRs hold memories, friendships, community and hard work every time they are booked. They hold a space for transformative clubs weekly. Tartan Seoul, in particular, is one of them. Tartan Seoul shows their love for Korean Pop music and dance all in one, creating a place for people to do what they love with inclusion of a niche personal interests.
Tartan Seoul is a K-pop dance team on campus established in the fall of 2014, as stated by Alisha Lai, a fourth year biology student and dance director of Tartan Seoul. Lai explained that they were previously under a different name as a subset of a different club. Then in 2023, they became Tartan Seoul. Tartan Seoul consists of various dance performance events as well as socials for everyone to come enjoy games and food. They also perform around campus with their most recent performance being at the Blossom Festival where they had two performances, both being from their cover groups.
Performances by Tartan Seoul are not strictly campus based as they also perform around the general area, such as K-pop events in Orange County, LA and Riverside. Not including the amazing showcases at the end of each quarter, which is open to anyone to come and perform together. A lot of their club members like to make little groups with friends, and perform at the end of the quarter, just to showcase what their team is about, and everything that they have been working on.
“You don’t have to love K-pop or K-pop dances, but a lot of people in our team and in our club just dance without really listening to K-pop,” Lai voiced. She believes Tartan Seoul is a space for everyone, not just those interested in either K-pop or dance. Lai also encourages those who are interested or passionate about either topic to audition for their competitive cover team which allows their performances to be uploaded to YouTube and perform in different cities.
Co-Director Kelly Dai also shared how Tartan Seoul was her first introduction to UCR, and from then on built her friend group. In her first year, she wanted to be more involved and present what she likes to the community, creating her own personal community with similar interests.
The club seemingly brought UCR a legitimate space for individuals to be themselves and share interests with those around them, creating a welcoming community, home away from home. Their overall goal emphasizes cleanliness and synced dance, so their styles and themes create high energy. Although aside from that they believe their team is naturally not very serious but a more fun team that likes to enjoy different dances and concepts, so they try to tie in some professionalism alongside creative freedom.
They meet Wednesdays at 6 p.m. with possibility of change due to MPR availability in the SRC or the director board availability. Their weekly dance workshops are open for any student and open to all dance levels. They last about two hours, and normally teach popular K-pop songs or any dances that have been trending in the K-pop community.
The club truly embodied UCR’s goal of belonging and creating a safe and healthy community. Lai and Dai both retold their experience as four year members and directors: “I think for me being a part of board has taught me how to work with others, or with people that are always changing, because our board changes every year […] I think that taught me just to be adaptable. Also within an organization things can go wrong at any moment, so also just being able to adapt to fast changes like that and being able to problem solve quickly,” Lai recalled.
Lai continued, “I think for me, a lot of it is just when I’m with our team and everything, and we’re dancing together, either at our performances, or our showcases … It’s just really nice to see, especially at the end of the year, being like, ‘Wow, this is all the work that we’ve put in, and we’re seeing the results of it.’ And it’s just really nice to be like, ‘Wow, I met you at the beginning of the year, I didn’t even know you, but by now we’re so much closer, we’re friends.’ […] I think that’s just really rewarding to see.”
