There are many different dance styles found throughout the world, including ballet, tap and jazz; each one has a form specific to their genre. Junior and leader of the WHS K-Pop club Juli Richards’s own passion for dance began four years ago in the form of Korean Pop dance.

“It’s a lot of work, but at the same time it’s so much fun because I get to bring in different songs, and I get to really work with the members,” Richards said.

Originally, she and a friend tried learning a dance together in middle school after discovering Korean Pop. Two years later as a freshman, two upperclassmen noticed her interest in dancing and they joined together to learn another routine.

“When I met Melissa [Shi] and Alyssa [Lee], they said ‘Oh, well you’re really into dance, we like to dance, let’s do a K-Pop dance together,’ so we did that, and we learned [the dance] ‘I Got a Boy,’ by Girls’ Generation,” Richards said. “We learned that we all really liked that, and we all really liked dancing.”

After all three of them unsuccessfully auditioned for Window Dance Ensemble, they decided to perform at the annual talent show as a trio. After a successful performance, they decided to form a club the next year focusing on K-Pop dance. Last Winter Week the group performed a few songs and plan on performing again this year.

“We had so much fun doing that and practicing every day, that we decided we should make that a real club,” Richards said, “The next year [last year] was our first year doing anything, and it was just so much fun.”

After Lee and Shi graduated last year, Richards took over as the current club leader. Her favorite parts of the club are dancing and picking out and listening to the songs she and the other members dance to.

“I love watching the dances. No matter how like difficult they may seem, I’ll write them down if I really like them,” Richards said.

She enjoys watching the satisfaction of the club members as well.

“It’s really great, getting to watch the dances and getting to show the people the dances that they’re going to be doing and seeing their excitement when they learn what they’re going to be doing,” Richards said.

Her inspiration comes from watching K-Pop groups such as Exo, Super Junior, Block B and f(x).

“I listen to so much K-Pop, it’s so difficult to choose,” Richards said, “S.M. Entertainment groups are really good, but I also like YG Entertainment groups, JYP Entertainment groups, all of them, all the music.”

Fine Arts department head Susan Memoli is the adviser for the club, which meets after school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the History wing.

“I think that if we just need to keep working hard and getting better, then that’s all the plan we need,” Richards said.