May cover story
THOMAS FORD • May 3, 2021
The hardest part about being one of K-pop’s leading choreographers, Kiel Tutin muses, is the pressure to meet the expectations of a demanding, hyper-involved fandom. “There’s often incredibly harsh feedback regarding how the fans think the choreography should have been,” the 25-year-old dancemaker, whose clients include K-pop megastars TWICE and Blackpink, says. “But the reality is they’re unaware of what goes on behind the scenes, so I’ve taught myself to no longer defend or try to explain.”
Such confidence has been well-earned. After all, Tutin has been sculpting music acts since before Blackpink became a four-woman supernova. “I’d worked with the girls when they were trainees several times,” he says. “They were so sweet, and we all got to really connect before they became the superstars they are today."
In South Korea, trainee centers, which offer the full scope of A&R services—and also focus intensely on their trainees' dance abilities—are popular among young performing artists hoping one day to become household names. YG Entertainment, which trained and cast the Blackpink quartet (and other K-pop juggernauts), commissions Tutin's choreography often, while competing businesses grab at him, too. His working relationship with each entertainment house is different: "Some are heavily collaborative and will talk to you about modifications they want to see, and sometimes I just get the song, the lyrics and a deadline," Tutin explains. "The companies always have the final say on what the choreography looks like—it’s such a huge industry, and if they want to change something because a move doesn’t look good on the artist, is similar to something else they’ve seen or they simply want a different vibe, their creatives will change it."
That decisive, demanding environment is something Tutin, himself an alum of the wildly popular New Zealand dance crew, the Royal Family, is no stranger to. (Famously, he is the bleached blonde waacking at center stage in the troupe's viral performance of Rihanna's "BBHMM.") "I trained at the Palace Dance Studio"—home to the "Royal" crew—"for nearly 5 years, and learned so much under Parris Goebel," he says. "We worked side by side, creating shows, projects and films together, so naturally it shaped me into who I am."
Most importantly, his "Royal Family" era provided him a platform—and finely tuned vessels that could convey his work. "To be around that much talent and collective ambition has continued to inspire me," he says. Tutin's biggest influence, though, is music (and, occasionally, short deadlines, he jokes). “I’ll always read the lyrics or translation before I start working on a dance,” he says. “Words, tone and pitch inspire me to create.” The moves that filter through his process end up an amalgam of styles: “I credit a large part of my choreography to waacking, vogue, dancehall and house, which I’ve trained in and am continually inspired by,” he says. “But I always look at my stuff and feel like I don’thave a particular style, and feel a bit more like a chameleon.”
The choreographer’s dynamic, shapeshifting movement has kept him in high-demand—not only in the K-pop world, but in American music markets, too. He’s worked with major Western pop acts, including the uber-talented Todrick Hall and all-around superstar Jennifer Lopez. “I have so much respect for Jen creatively, but I think my favorite moments happened outside of the studio,” Tutin remembers. “One Halloween while we were working on ‘Marry Me’ [a film set to release in 2022], we went to her apartment, ate sliders and had a great chat that night about New Zealand and what I do back home—little moments like that where you are reminded we are all just human.
Tutin has parlayed his success in the dance realm into other business ventures. Most notably, he’s the creative director of the agency '3WJ+boy', which he founded to help build a more equitable commercial-dance industry in New Zealand. “The agency happened out of necessity,” he says. “I’ve seen many situations in my time where dancers were exploited, used and abused, and I wanted to make the changes within our growing industry to not allow that to happen.” But in true Kiel Tutin fashion—he’s always multitasking—he will have to balance this weighty responsibility with a slew of upcoming gigs.
In addition to a few hush-hush K-pop projects in the works, he’s currently dancing on tour with singer Jolin Tsai, who has been dubbed the queen of Chinese pop. Other than that, he says, “I’m really making an effort this year to put more into personal projects. Finding the time to really dig in and invest in my own creative endeavors will hopefully be next.”
Thomas Ford is a NYC-based dance artist and writer with bylines in Dance Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail. He formerly served as a contributing editor at Dance Spirit. He is a year-round contemporary teacher at the Joffrey Ballet School (NYC), has presented choreographic works at prestigious venues, including The Joyce Theater and is currently pursuing his MFA in dance at Hunter College.
