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Home / New Zealand

Jam Republic: How Samoan teine Emma Huch got on a hot South Korean dance show

By Aaron Ryan Te Ao Māori News
Other·
19 Feb, 2024 09:48 PM3 mins to read

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Huch is a former member of the Royal Family Freshman Dance Crew.

Huch is a former member of the Royal Family Freshman Dance Crew.

At just 21 years old, a teine Samoa has forged a fulltime career in the art of dance through a South Korean television show.

Professional dancer Emma Huch (Magiagi Village) dances for Jam Republic in the South Korean hip-hop competition Street Women Fighter (SWF).

Huch says it started with a phone call from Royal Family Dance Crew choreographer Kirsten Dodgen to ask if she wanted to be part of the five-women team.

“All the dancers in Jam Republic, we are representing Jam Republic as an agency under the crew.

“So we got the chance to come together, five random girls who’d never met before, and now we’re the best of friends. We just got to showcase our talent, and also our cultures and identities from all over the world.”

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Jam Republic. Top: Kirsten Dodgen, Emma Huch. Bottom: Ling Zhang, Latrice Kabamba and Audrey Lane-Partlow.
Jam Republic. Top: Kirsten Dodgen, Emma Huch. Bottom: Ling Zhang, Latrice Kabamba and Audrey Lane-Partlow.

Born and bred in the Auckland streets of Grey Lynn, Huch has been taking part in hip-hop competitions since she was 4 years old.

She attended St Mary’s College in Auckland City and became a senior member of the SAYNTZ Dance Academy, which her family members are also a part of.

Huch, known in her community for her krump and tomboy-style dancing, says SWF made her explore more feminine moves.

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“When I went to Korea, I learned so many new styles and how to be more feminine, because I’m not really feminine.

“But the good thing is that I held myself together. I still represented who I was but also tried new styles, which is now adding to my own craft, and [I’m] trying to explore what else I can do.”

Emma Huch (front right) showing off her newly bolstered feminine side via the crew's outfit.
Emma Huch (front right) showing off her newly bolstered feminine side via the crew's outfit.

The shooting of the competition went from June last year through to late November, and since then she has been asked to teach in other parts of Korea and attend a class in Singapore.

She had never been to a country in East Asia before and got a culture shock, she says, touching on her observations of the work ethic of her Korean competitors.

“Their dancing and work ethic is very different from New Zealanders. They’re up in the morning right up until the night and they just never sleep,” she says.

“But it shows why and how successful they can be because of the work ethic, which is what I took away.”

Huch is now enjoying her summer in Auckland before she jets off to Vietnam in March with Jam Republic to take part in the Summer Jam Dance Camp her agency runs every year.

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