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Students find community (and some fame) through a love of K-pop

Annie Nguyen ’25 will never forget looking out on the crowd at her first-ever showcase with DayBreak, º£½ÇÉçÇø’s first Korean Pop (K-pop) student dance group. 

The audience in the Locatelli Student Activity Center was small, just about 20 people or so, and filled with mostly familiar faces, but for Nguyen, it was energizing simply to perform her favorite songs in front of an audience. 

Two years later, the feeling remains, but the group and the crowds are much larger. DayBreak has grown from about 10 members to more than 40, and they have performed at events across the region, including the —a three-day festival that draws tens of thousands of visitors. Since then, DayBreak's audience has continued to grow online, garnering more than 2,800 views on YouTube in the past year. 

“Performing at 626 Night Market was an extremely exciting opportunity because it’s an event that celebrates Asian culture,” says Nguyen. “Not only was it a fun event, but it’s been great seeing how much DayBreak has grown over the years.”

While the attention is nice, DayBreak’s mission has nothing to do with crowd sizes. The student group was formed five years ago to create a community for people who love K-pop music. 

For the uninitiated, K-pop is a type of Korean pop music that blends America’s boy band craze of the early 2000s with pop-inspired dance routines. K-pop idols are global celebrities, performing on variety shows, appearing in advertisements, and headlining fan conventions. 

But while K-pop groups like BTS and BLACKPINK are a worldwide phenomenon, it hasn’t always been easy for K-pop fans to share their fandom with other people in person. 

“As recently as 10 years ago, K-pop was something people didn’t understand very well,” says Nguyen. “It’s not easy for someone to engage with that kind of music because it can be different listening to another language.” 

That’s why a group of º£½ÇÉçÇø students came together to create DayBreak, so people could showcase their talent and passion for K-pop dance together.  

Since its inception, Daybreak has welcomed students of all skill levels and taught them how to do dances, offering workshops for anyone interested. More experienced dancers can also audition for bigger performances at on-campus events run by student groups like Igwebuike’s Love Jones or Phantom Dreamscape, DayBreak’s signature annual event which takes place at the Locatelli Center. 

Members of DayBreak often use online tutorials from K-pop to learn complex, synchronized dances. Looking back, Nguyen’s favorite dance routine was to the song “Drama” by Aespa, where she got to perform the same dance routine as her favorite member, Winter.

This past year, the club helped its members grow professionally. DayBreak created opportunities for its members to get professional experience in public relations, media, and videography through filming dance covers, editing videos, and creating social media content. 

Their hard work helped expand the club's reach, serving as one of the main drivers of its success on YouTube.

As DayBreak has grown in its offerings in the last five years, members— including founder Niko Lopez, M.S. ’24—say some of their favorite times are the more low-key, non-dancing social events like KBBQ night or movie night that help students find community on campus. 

“As a graduate student, I thought I wouldn’t have that many people to talk to, but Daybreak has changed all that,” adds Lopez. “It allowed me to just interact with people that I share the same hobbies with and has given me a lot of new friends.” 

Nguyen feels the same way. As a senior, she says graduating meant more than leaving her classmates behind, but also her beloved DayBreak dance crew. 

“It was bittersweet,” says Nguyen. “I’m just super excited to see where Daybreak goes and hope it continues to be a space where people enjoy it as a community.”