Kims
Win Third Straight Korean Dance Title
Hye
Min Kim & Min Woo
March
14, 2006
Article & Photo © J.
Barry Mittan
Hye
Min Kim and her brother Min Woo are the first brother
and sister dance team to compete for the Republic
of Korea. Both born in February within a year of one
another, the siblings have won the South Korean senior
dance championship for the past three seasons. Previously
the couple won four silver medals and a bronze at
Korean Nationals.
They
finished 14th in 2005 at the Winter Universiade in
Innsbruck, Austria and also competed in the Four Continents
Championships, placing 15th in 2005 and 2006. Among
their goals for this season is to compete at Worlds
for the first time in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and
reach the free dance by placing among the top 24 couples.
They also hope to be able to compete in the Olympic
Games when they come to Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada in 2010.
The
duo began skating because their father was a figure
skating coach. Hye Min, who is now 21, began when
she was seven, while her brother, Min Woo, who is
now 20, was six at the time. Competing in singles,
Min Woo said he was up to double jumps when they decided
to switch to dance at the ages of 13 and 12. "I
think ice dancing is more beautiful and more difficult,"
he said.
The
dancers now train during the summer at the Skating
Club of Wilmington in Delaware with Irina Romanova
and Igor Yaroshenko. They first started working there
in the summer of 2004 and returned for additional
training right before Four Continents last winter.
During the summer, they train for four to five hours
on the ice, six days a week. But when they return
to their hometown of Seoul, Korea for the remainder
of the season, they can only spend three hours a day
on the ice.
Romanova
choreographs the duo's programs. "We find some
music and Irina finds some music, then we pick,"
he said. This season, they used "Life Begins
Again" and "Shadowman" by Simon Emmerson
and James McNally, "With You" by Bobby Bunnungurr
and "Samb-Adagio" by Morten Friis for their
free dance. The original dance music includes "Chilly
Cha Cha" by Jessica Jay, "Samba" by
Bond, and a rhumba to "The Summer Knows".
Off ice, the siblings listen to techno and anime music,
which is very popular in Korea.
Min
Woo likes to play all kinds of sports with his friends.
That includes soccer, basketball, tennis and badminton.
Hye Min usually likes to just watch, although she
participates in badminton and tennis matches. Both
of the dancers are studying physical education in
college. She is in her third year of studies, while
he is in the second year. He plans to go into business,
but she is not sure of a profession as yet.
Among
their other interests are hanging out with friends,
reading, watching movies, playing computer games,
and shopping on the Internet.
