After its first performance as a group at Chapel Hill High School Junior Follies, Korean pop (K-pop) dance group Bubble™ has amassed a following and continues to perform at various events throughout Chapel Hill, including, most recently, Asian Night on April 13.
The group consists of Chapel Hill juniors Haiduong Nguyen, Caulie Chu, Richard Gao, Alison Zhang and East Chapel Hill freshman Rae Pham.
Bubble™ formed when Nguyen and Chu performed for the first time at Asian Night last year and received positive feedback, as well as several requests from students to join the group. Over the summer, the original group was able to get in contact with the students who had expressed interest, and the group expanded to its current five members.
At Junior Follies, the group performed a dance to the K-pop song “Dumb Dumb,” by the popular group Red Velvet. Red Velvet is a five-member girl group with the most number-one K-pop albums.
The members of Bubble™ decided to audition for Junior Follies to gain experience and practice for other events such as Asian Night, becoming the first K-pop group to audition for Junior Follies in the history of the annual event.
The first performance received a standing ovation and praise from the crowd. “They had an awesome energy and were super fun to watch,” junior and audience member Stella Roth said. “Everyone in the audience was enjoying it, and it was something new for a lot of people.”
Some members of the group attribute Bubble™’s success and the crowd’s positive reaction to the uniqueness of their act. “I think that because our act wasn’t what you would typically expect at a talent show,” Chu said, “that allowed us to successfully attract the audience.”
Chu, Gao, Pham and Nguyen decided to capitalize on the group’s success at Junior Follies and perform again at this year’s Asian Night.
Asian Night was held at East Chapel Hill High School and was run by the Asian Pacific American Club and the Asian Student Association. The event raised $2,139 for the One Sky Foundation, a Thai Foundation that works to meet the needs of vulnerable children in the Thai-Burma border district of Sangkhlaburi.
“We were second to last among the acts that performed, and it was a lot of fun,” Nguyen said. “I got to work on remixing the music a bit and talking with the tech people about the lighting this time, and we got a really cool stage in the end.”
Bubble™ plans on reuniting at least once a year for Asian Night and looks forward to using its culture and talent for the greater good with continued fundraisers. “We can’t wait to see how our impact grows as we keep dancing,” Chu said.
