Formed in March 2020 by three members of Nanyang Technological University’s K-pop Dance Programme (KDP) after their graduation, Z-Axis is easily Singapore’s most well-known K-pop dance cover crew, with over 160,000 subscribers on their YouTube page.
The crew is known for its one-take dance covers, usually performed and filmed in open spaces like the MBS boardwalk or near the Bugis Junction Plaza Fountain.
Ranging in age from 17 to their early 30s, many in the crew are working adults who commit themselves to rigorous practice schedules after their work day ends.
The co-founder of Z-Axis, a 29-year-old art educator who goes by her stage name JungA, is in charge of many of the crew’s covers. A fan of the girl group Mamamoo, she learns, teaches and performs a different cover almost every week. Each cover can take around three to six sessions of rehearsals over weekday evenings and weekends before it is ready to be performed in public.
When asked how she copes with the commitment of Z-Axis with work, she says: “It’s work-life balance, right? My life is dancing. After work, I want to relieve stress, I want to do something else, so I dance.”
As she talks, she is doing her hair and make-up with fellow member Jasmine Ng (below left), 25, a digital marketing specialist.
They are in an empty corner of a cafe in the Sands Expo and Convention Centre that is closed for the day to style themselves for their cover of girl group NewJeans’ Supernatural. The song was released on June 21, two weeks before Z-Axis filmed their cover on July 6.
Miss JungA is making herself up to look like NewJeans’ Hanni while Miss Ng is to be the group’s Hyein.
When performing a cover, Z-Axis members not only have to learn their moves, they must also recreate the outfits, hair and make-up of the K-pop idols they are emulating, often spending their own money on wigs and clothes to achieve the complete look.
Their YouTube videos, filmed by their own members, also mimic the way official dance practices of K-pop groups are filmed, in one full take with the camera following the movements of the members and the beat of the music.
Miss Wang Daini (below), 27, a solution architect in the tech industry, who took charge of filming the NewJeans number on July 6, had no videography experience prior to joining Z-Axis.
She, too, was a graduate of Nanyang Technological University and a KDP member. She is one of five members of Z-Axis’ production team, which films and edits the videos.
“You learn from watching K-pop videos on YouTube, especially official dance practices from (K-pop label) SM Entertainment, and just pick up their camerawork, when to move closer and further, how to move the camera with the music,” she says.
Aside from producing the videos, Miss Wang also dances. She was in Z-Axis’s cover of boy band Shinee member Taemin’s 2023 solo release, Guilty.
While the crew is passionate about K-pop dance, there are challenges.
Z-Axis is completely voluntary and as they use copyrighted K-pop songs in their videos, they cannot receive money for their content – not even when its videos get over a million views like the crew’s cover of NewJeans’ OMG (2023), which received 1.8 million views, or its cover of Ive’s I Am (2023).
And finding free spaces to practise is not an easy task.
Miss Ng, a fan of boy bands like Exo and BTS, says: “We used to practise at *Scape, but that closed down for renovation, so then we went to Marina Square to practise outside (hotpot chain) Haidilao, where there are reflective surfaces, but we got chased away from there (by building security). So we are left with SMU, where we have to try and find spaces with reflective surfaces like glass panels to double up as mirrors.”
At the filming, Z-Axis is one of three K-pop dance cover crews The Straits Times sees at the boardwalk. They draw curious looks from the weekend crowd outside MBS. A firework display from the nearby National Day Parade rehearsal at the Padang has drawn heavy footfall to the area.
The crew has dedicated fans who faithfully capture their performance. One of them is Japanese expatriate, Mr Shiro Nagahama (below, centre), 45, a hobby videographer and photographer, who comes by MBS every weekend to shoot the scenery and sights to hone his skills.
Mr Nagahama, who works for an automaker and moved to Singapore around two years ago, says: “I first saw them here last May. Back then, they were the only K-pop dance crew performing here. Now, more and more of these groups are showing up. But they are still the best out of all the ones I’ve seen.”
Despite challenges in finding spaces to practise, the high level of commitment Z-Axis requires and increasing competition from similar crews, the members are happy to keep going.
Miss JungA says: “What’s rewarding to me is just filming the videos of our cover. When I watch myself in the video, I see the hard work I’ve put in.”