Over the past two years, junior Alicia Brizuela has found a hobby in K-pop dancing.

“I met a friend who was a K-pop dancer, and then she introduced me to the community of K-pop in Houston,” Brizuela said. “It is such a big community. I liked it, so then I auditioned for the group and I made it.”

Brizuela is part of a K-pop dance group called the Golden Lights. They perform at skate nights, cafes and, at their biggest event, the Korean festival.

“The Korean festival is a huge festival where different groups perform at the big stage, which is a big deal,” Brizuela said. “So a bunch of groups do cover dances; and if we are lucky, we get to perform at it, which my group did last year,”

Brizuela loves performing with her dance group. Her favorite things about K-pop dances are the visuals, choreography, music and style.

“I don’t really exercise so it’s nice; and it’s a thing that helps me keep my brain healthy because it takes a lot of memory to remember, and I’m learning new things everyday,” Brizuela said.

To learn their dances, each member of the group must watch a video of the dance by themselves and try to learn it by mimicking the moves in the video. During practices, they set forms, walk through formations, clean up the choreography and perform.

“I love performing, and the people there are very nice,” Brizuela said. “It’s just such a loving community. We are all friends, and getting to perform with each other is pretty awesome.”

Most kids rely on having a friend group and activities at school, but Brizuela recently transferred from Kingwood High School and doesn’t know a lot of people at Kingwood Park, so her dance group has become her friend group as well.

“Since I have this huge community outside of school it adds a little more interesting aspect to my life because it separates me from thinking I only have school,” she said. “It opens up a bigger world. I get to meet different people I would have never met if it wasn’t because of my dance group. It is very refreshing and helps a lot with my mental health.”

Brizuela’s parents are very supportive with her choices. They try to attend as many performances as they can and always make sure she likes what she is doing.

“My dad is Asian, so every time I need an opinion on my dances I do them in front of him and he gives me critiques,” Brizuela said. “I was really shocked when he got into K-pop — I thought he was going to make fun of me, and my mom is always supportive as well with anything that makes me happy.”

Brizuela said that at the beginning of the pandemic their practice schedule was very slow and they didn’t get to perform for a long time, but people have started hosting small events with COVID precautions for K-pop dance groups and others to perform.

“If anyone is interested in the events, I can introduce them to it,” Brizuela said. “People just need to have a more open mind to it and leave the stereotypes aside. The events are so fun.”