The Korean street dance show Street Woman Fighter (short called SWF or 스우파) and it’s high school spin-off Street Dance Girl Fighter, were huge successes. Last year, Mnet featured an impressive male line-up, including 1Million, YGX, and Just Jerk. As anticipated, beloved idol Kang Daniel returned as host of the show. The judging line-up consisted of BoA, who returned after season 1, while Super Junior’s Eunhyuk and 2 PM’s Wooyoung joined her.
Below is the full list of the competing teams for the survival show! @mnet_dance
The 8 Teams that Competed for the Korean Street Dance Show SMF were:
- 1-Million @1milliondance
- B2B @banktwobrothers_b2b
- Eo-ddae @team_eoddae
- Just Jerk @justjerkcrew
- Mbitious @mnet_dance
- Prime Kingz @primekingz
- We Dem Boyz @team_wedemboyz
- YGX @ygx_official
1 Million
- No. members: 7
- Members: Yumeki (유메키), Mihawk Back (백구영), Choi Young Jun (최영준), Root (루트), Alexx (알렉스), Nino (니노), Yechan (예찬)
- Dance crew’s Instagram:
- Members’ Instagrams: Alexx Heon, Yumeki, Mihawk Back, Nino Kim, Yechan, Choi Young Jun, Root
There is no need to discuss this – 1Million with their Youtube Channel of over 25.4 million subscribers and Instagram of 1.7 million followers make them the best-known team on this year’s Korean street dance show SMF. As we know, 1Million is undeniably the studio that has pushed the Korean street dance scene to be well-known amongst dancers and even non-dancers across the globe. The team is made up of an exciting combination of choreographers.
First, we have K-Pop choreographer power house Mihawk Back (Baek Gu Young), who directs just about anything from SM and co-founded the dance studio Tapaha Dance Space. Additionally, there is Choi Young Joon, another well-known K-Pop choreographer. A slight surprise was their youngest member, Root (Seung Yeon Hong, born in 2003), whose dancing abilities can’t be denied, but he is pretty fresh as a coach still, especially considering that we are talking about 1Million. On top of that, another seemingly boneless youngster on the team is the only foreign participant in the show: Yumeki Taneka from Japan.
B2B Bank two Brothers
- No. members: 6
- Leader: JRoc
- Members: Feeldog (필독), JRoc (제이락), Deegun (디건), Gof (고프), BusyBe (비지비), Gi Seok (기석)
- Dance crew’s Instagram: banktwobrothers
- Members’ Instagrams: BusyBe, Deegun, JRoc, Feeldog, Giseok, Gof
B2B, aka Bank two Brothers, is not just a Korean street dance crew but also a street fashion brand founded in 2012. Leader JRoc (Minjae Lee) and his designer friend Tsuka started to focus on and bring back the authentic Hip Hop culture and all its aspects, including fashion and dance. Did you know that the five elements of Hip Hop are Djing, spraying (graffiti), MCing, beatboxing, and breakdancing? The dance crew focuses on freestyle, so we can be sure they will bring some smooth grooves and flavor to the stage. With their hashtag #doyouknowhiphop, they are directly calling out the other team’s skills and knowledge. Side note: the crew had to change their crew logo for the show due to the similarity with K-Pop group BTOB.
Eo-Ddae
- No. members: 6
- Leader: Ted
- Members: E.Jo (이조), Ted (테드), Black.Q (블랙큐), Kinky (킹키), Duck (덕), Quanz (콴즈)
- Dance crew’s Instagram: EODDAE
- Members’ Instagrams: TED, Black.Q, Duck, E.Jo, Quanz, Kinky
Team Eo-ddae (est 2020) made an impressive entrance with their hashtag rainbow #레인보우 for the crew introductions. Leader Ted (Jaehee Choi) is participating with Team Eo-Dddae to bring diversity and a message of open-mindedness to the show by focusing on the “girls Hip Hop” genre in Korea. This refers to the type of Hip Hop movements that focus on chest rolls, hip movements, and attitude. During the global online voting, they were often praised for their clean and deliberate execution of the opposing team’s choreography. Generally, being so open with their sexuality is an impressive feat on a Korean street dance show or any other TV show. It is traditionally not known to be very accommodating of different sexual identities.
Just Jerk
- No. members: 7
- Leader: Young-J
- Members: Howl (하울), Hulk (헐크), J Ho (제이호), Minseo (민서), Yejun (예준), Young-J (영제이), S.One (에스원)
- Members’ Instagrams: Yejun, Hulk, Howl, Minseo, J-Ho, S.One, Young-J
- Dance crew’s Instagram: Just Jerk
#Globalchampionno.1, and that’s a fact! Just Jerk Crew is known for its extreme precision and cleanliness while incorporating creative concepts like using traditional Korean dance and music into their performances. The Crew has existed since 2010 when high school friends Young-J and J-Ho got together and have been busy building Korea’s street dance scene ever since. They won one of the most renowned international choreography competitions, the Body Rock Dance Competition, in 2016. They also won various international and national dance competitions and are teachers at the prestigious Urban Dance Camp in Germany. To top it off, they even performed for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018.
Due to this impressive resume, many expected Just Jerk to be part of the judging line-up for Street Man Fighter rather than participants. Originally, Just Jerk Family was a much bigger crew and didn’t only consist of male dancers but also Yoonyoung Kwak and Nain Jo, who had just won street dance girl fighter with her team Turns. Fun fact YGX’s Leejung Lee also used to be a crew member until 2019!
Mbitious
- No. members: 8
- Leader: 5000
- Members: 5000 (오천), Kim Pyong Ya (김평야), Roh Tae Hyun (노태현), Tarzan (타잔), Hoya (이호원), Jinwoo (진우), Kim Jung Woo (김정우), Woo Tae (우태)
- Dance Crew’s instagram: /
- Members’ Instagrams: 5000, Pyongya, Jinwoo, Kim Jung Woo, Hoya (Lee Howon), Wootae, Roh Taehyun, Tarzan
Mbitious is a crew that was put together in a 3-episode survival prequel to Street Man Fighter called Be Mbtitious this spring. In the end, the final eight members were picked through several challenges in which a combination of viewer votes and dance judges evaluated each contestant. The line-up was already top-notch in the first episode, as anyone familiar with the Korean street dance scene could quickly tell. It was a tough competition that favored experienced choreography dancers over freestyle dancers. We expected something along these lines since Street Man Fighter will likely focus more on team choreographies than individual battles.
Seasoned teachers like the leader and Hip Hop dancer 5000 (Seung Hoon Shin) and Wootae (Woo Tae Chae) join hands with K-Pop idols Hoya (Howon Lee) and Kid Monster (Tae-hyun Roh). Additionally, fellow Aitty Too crew members Jinwoo (Jinwoo Yoon) and Tarzan (Wonjoon Lee) made it into the lineup, which makes us curious as to why the whole team is not participating in the show together. Surprisingly Jungwoo Kim, born in 2004, made it into the final lineup as well, making him the show’s youngest participant. However, Mnet’s editing did give it away pretty early on that he was going to be in the final line-up. Who is your favorite Mbitious member?
Prime Kingz
- No. members: 6
- Leader: Trix
- Members: Knucks (넉스), 2face (투페이스), Kyoyung Jr (교영주니어), Trix (트릭스), Door (도어), Counter (카운터)
- Dance crew’s Instagram: PRIME KINGZ
- Members’ Instagram: Trix, Knucks, Counter, 2face, Door, Kyoyung Jr.
Prime Kingz Crew is an unexpected but very welcome addition to the line-up for Street Man Fighter (est 2015). They are an all-Krump crew, a genre that holds a special place even in the Korean street dance scene. Krumping focuses highly on muscle contraction and is a freestyle in which expressing one’s raw emotions is at the center of focus. Not many people outside of street dance know of the style called Krump. Therefore, anybody interested in learning about Krump should watch the historic 2002 documentary movie Rize. It follows the first generation of Krumpers and their stories in early 2000s LA.
Leader Trix founded Prime Kingz in 2015, and the crew is credited by one of the founders of Krump, Tight Eyez. Tight Eyez is also one of the main characters in Rize. As a side note: leader Trix is also a good friend of Just Jerk’s Leader Young-J, and they occasionally collaborate on choreographies. At the same time, crew member Knucks is Cocoa and Butter Rihye’s boyfriend.
We Dem Boyz
- No. members: 8
- Leader: Vata
- Members: Youngbin (영빈), Dophan (돕한), Ingyu (인규), Kamel (카멜), Vata (바타), Haesung (해성), Insun (인선), Kyungnam (경남)
- Dance crew’s Instagram: We Dem Boyz
- Members’ Instagrams: Vata, Haesung, Dophan, Kyungnam, Insun, Ingyoo, Kamel, Youngbin
Most definitely, the flighest boys in town, We Dem Boyz (est 2017), are led by Vata (Tae Hyeon Kim). Vata is a dancer known for his style and swag adapted from training abroad. He and fellow member Ingyoo (Ingyoo Kim) are busy choreographing for K-Pop artists like SuperM, CL’s song Spicy, and Kang Daniel – no wonder they are Kang Daniel’s one pick!
The crew recently released a ‘dance album’ with some top-notch visuals in dancing and cinematography/styling. Interestingly, We Dem Boyz Maknae (막내) dancer Kamel is also a regular teacher at 1Million. However, co-leader Ingyoo is a year younger than him! As well as other teams on the show are initially a bigger crew.
YGX
- No. members: 7
- Leaders: Kwon Twins
- Members: Kwon Youngdeuk (권영득), Kwon Youngdon (권영돈), Junsun (준선), Dow (도우), Junho (준호), Mood Dok (무드독), Hyunse (현세)
- Dance crew’s Instagram: YGX
- Members’ Instagrams: Dow, Kwon Youngdeuk, Junsun, Kwon Youngdon, Junho, Hyunse, Mood Dok
Last but not least comes the team “good looks are just a given” line-up centered around the Kwon twins of YGX. YGX and dance studio X Academy is a sub-division of YG Entertainment, where the Kwon twins (Youngdeuk Kwon and Youngdon Kwon) have already been active for a long time. As much as these two were expected to lead the team, Junsun Yoo was a big surprise. Not the fact that he is participating but more the fact that he did not join team 1Million. This is because he is considered one of the OG teachers, along with Lia Kim. Another exciting addition is Junho Lee, who is close friends with Wootae from MBitious. They accidentally spoiled their participation for a hot second on Instagram. Team YGX has won Street Dance Girl Fighter with team Turns (턴즈).
Want to know who won? Check out Mnet’s YouTube channel, The CHOOM. Let us know who your favorite is and why in the comments!
