[Idoltist] “The best at dancing”…Dreamcatcher Sua, significance of 5 years of trainee life ①

28 May 2023

XportsNews’s sixth character in the ‘Idoltist’ series Sua, Dreamcatcher’s main dancer, created the choreography for their b-side tracks ‘Red Sun’ and ‘Sahara’. Not only that, but Sua also personally films and edits her vlogs among other things, showing that she has many talents.

Sua has extraordinary high tension and bright energy, but, unlike now, she had a reserved personality when she was younger. Even so, Sua found it exciting to be on stage and showed off her unique charms early on.

“I was very shy and reserved, but I had so much fun preparing for things like the school arts festival. Practicing with friends helped me gain confidence, and I found myself approaching them first. So I think I started dancing from then on. I feel like that is what caused me to become more extraverted.”

Sua, whose MBTI is currently ‘ESTP’, believes she was an ‘INFJ’ when she was younger. “I felt uneasy whenever things did not go according to plan, so I always prepared thoroughly. Even now during work I still have those tendencies. If I don’t calculate things to some degree, something always breaks.”

Young Sua’s talents were first discovered by the people around her. She would learn dances faster than others, so her friends suggested that she go to auditions. Sua also acknowledged this and tried out her first audition in the 6th grade of elementary school.

“I once went with a friend to an SM audition in Busan without telling my parents. At the time, there were several hundred people there for the preliminary round. I was immediately eliminated of course. (laughs) We said to wear the prettiest clothing, so I wore a totally pink outfit, but now that I think about it, it was pretty tacky.”

After this, Sua, entering middle school, joined a dance club and properly started getting into dancing. “I participated passionately in the dance club for the entire 3 years. It was a club for dancing boy group dances. I had a lot of thoughts like ‘I dance in a special way, different from the others’. It was a time where I wanted to do difficult dances.”

Sua started genuinely dreaming of becoming a singer in high school. She was convinced that she had to become a singer, but her parents opposed it.

“My parents said ‘we are going to send you to an academy, so if you do not pass an audition within 6 months, give up on dancing and singing’, and at the time I was so full of confidence that I accepted it.

Back then there weren’t a lot of opportunities for auditions outside of Seoul, and it was not a time where I could easily travel to Seoul. But during the 6th month since starting at the academy, for the first time a company from Seoul came to do auditions. There I passed the first round.”

5 years can feel like a long time, but within that period I experienced a lot of things, met a lot of people, and received a lot of motivation. I believe I made myself mentally strong during that time.

For the second round, Sua and her parents headed to Seoul, and she recalls that things were going a little too well. Sua wanted to prove her potential to her parents. She shared a story involving her mother back then that aroused feelings of sadness.

“I think my mom helped prevent a greater misfortune with a lesser sacrifice. That day my mom hurt her leg while falling down the stairs and even had to wear a cast, but I passed the audition. I believed it was my mother’s strength and was thankful.”

Sua, who passed the audition, moved from the South Gyeongsang city of Masan to Seoul all by herself and started the trainee life. She was unable to debut at her first company, and for 5 years she auditioned at various companies. At the time Sua was determined to be ‘the best at dancing no matter which company I enter’.

“At some academy, there was a good opportunity to be seen by multiple agencies in the same audition, so I went. We had to go in groups of 3 and dance in the same room together, and it turns out Yoohyeon was there. I didn’t know at the time. Yoohyeon must have been impressed by my dance.

We even danced the same dance at the last audition for the company Minx ended up at. Back then Yoohyeon thought ‘that’s the unnie I saw at the academy’ and recognized me, it was fascinating.”

Sua was recognized for her dancing by other trainees and became motivated to also sing well like her role model BoA.

“I was the best at dancing while going through various companies, and I worked hard to reach that level, but I also wanted to be great at singing. So I developed an interest in singing as well. While practising singing, I found that it was impossible for it to not be influenced by my dancing. My style has become more diverse.

I learned various genres of dance like breakdancing, hip hop, popping, contemporary. Such a variety of dances also blended in a variety of ways while practicing singing. Every practice was a whole new experience.

5 years can feel like a long time, but within that period I experienced a lot of things, met a lot of people, and received a lot of motivation. I believe I made myself mentally strong during that time. I think I felt comfortable when I debuted because I had that time.“

Source: xportsnews

Translation by 7-Dreamer irshu
Please do not take translation without credit