Young Filipino-Korean dance group debuts on stage with K-pop stars

Dream Key10z, a group of 10 talented Filipino-Korean children aged 8-15, shared a stage with high-profile K-pop groups, demonstrating their talent in dancing that impressed the audience.

They’re called “DK10z” for short, where D stands for “dream, dance and diversity” and K for “key, kids and Korea”. 

Dream Key10z was formed by Korea Cultural Diversity Organization (CDO-Korea) and FILKOHA (Filipino Korean Heritage Association), a group founded in 2017 and is composed of Filipino expatriates organizing activities for Filipinos and Filipino-Koreans living in Korea. Both headed by the former National Assembly of Korea member, Jasmine Lee.

The group members are brothers Park Kwan-seung (11) and Park Jung-hyun (10), Lee Ye-in (11), Althea Sophia Jastiva (15), Ko Eun-jeong (8), Park Soo-ryeon (10), Lee Seong-hyun (11), Hwang Jeong-hyeon (8), Kim Tae-rin (9) and Hong Ye-seul (12).

The members first met each other on April 27. They were trained by talented Filipinos: choreographer Jeleno Ermas, as well as FILKOHA’s Cherish Maningat, a Filipino musical actress in Korea. Michael Cabahug worked on the music arrangement.

The group only had just six practice sessions of three or four hours each before they had their onstage debut on May 24 at the Jangchung Arena in Seoul. “Let’s Fly: One & One" concert started with songs from Song So-hee, a well-known traditional Korean music gugak prodigy, followed by the K-pop group Mamamoo. Traditional Korean drum group Bumta preceded the K-pop dance performance of Dream Key10z.

Dream Key10z danced to a medley of six songs including Mamamoo’s “Go-go Bebe,” BTS’ “Boy with Luv” and Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” They were followed by K-pop group Momoland and the show was capped off by the trio, Koyote.

Dream Key10z’s performance drew a positive response from the audience, and the members appeared overwhelmed to be performing on such a stage together with high-profile K-pop groups.

Althea who was teary eyed after the concert, said, “Thank you so much! This helped me be more confident to perform on a big stage without fear in the future!”

“Let’s Fly: One on One" concert was organized  and hosted by the Gukwibu of Korea, a leading security company, and C.A.C (Healing Concert with Asian Children) Organizing Committee. Proceeds from the concert this year will be donated to victims of domestic violence in Korea and the Philippines. The concert which kicked off this year will be held annually to convey social messages and help neglected children in Korea and other countries in Asia.

More arts and culture related projects are underway for CDO-Korea and FILKOHA. One of which is starting on June 1, which is a project in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Free bilingual musical theater training for Filipino-Korean kids is being offered, with the goal of performing onstage before the end of the year, in commemoration of the 70th year anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Korea this year. Tagalog lessons by Ana Park, acting and singing lessons by musical actress Cherish Maningat and choreography will be taught by musical actress Park Eun-hee.

Audition for the training will be held on June 1. Please check the Filkoha Facebook page at www.facebook.com/filkoha for more details.


By The Korea Herald (khnews@heraldcorp.com)