As a born-to-be dancer, J-Hope of BTS offered some words of advice to budding K-pop wannabes.

The Saturday episode of MBC’s audition program “Under Nineteen” featured the BTS dance guru tutoring young competitors of the show who took on the mission of covering BTS’ mega hit “Fake Love.”

Upon arriving at the studio, with his hands full of snacks for the trainees, he warmly said, “‘Fake Love’ is a difficult song to perform live, and the choreography is really difficult as well. We practiced it a lot too. It’s a song very meaningful to us, as it led us to receive more love from all over the globe, and I’m looking forward to your performances.”

After watching the contestant’s perform, J-Hope lavished praise on them, while keenly pointing out the details of the moves and giving extra compliments to a trainee who covered J-Hope’s part in the choreography.




He also didn’t forget to share his hands-on experience as a K-pop idol.

“It is important to practice and monitor yourselves frequently. You need to keep checking parts you fall short in and group formations. And it’s really important to convey the sincerity of your love for this job, stage and dance. Since our job is to make people’s eyes and ears happy, it’s crucial to deliver your emotions,” he said.

“Under Nineteen” is an audition program for aspiring teenage K-pop idols, who compete in different categories -- vocals, rap and performance -- to form a K-pop idol group.

The program also features acts like Crush, hip-hop duo Dynamic Duo and Super Junior’s Eunhyuk as official tutors in the vocal, rap and performance sections, respectively.

EXO’s Kai will reportedly make a guest appearance as a dance tutor following the BTS member.

The program airs every Saturday at 6:25 p.m.

By Hong Dam-young (lotus@heraldcorp.com)