#nova is suffering due her own past brainstorm

[novalizinpeace]

Just starting the process of rb everything into the new blog

'm already tired of it

[rkmiya]

☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ MGAS TRAINING TIME ˎˊ˗

sunmi wasn’t the happiest going into the next round of the mgas. her top pick was straight up eliminated. although her other three made it into the team, she was a little miffed to see that kenta of all people had made it into the nova team when she was sure that none of those band boys would make it (why they would aim for nova in the first place is beyond her). she eyes everyone, her clipboard in hand.

they each introduce themselves. sunmi purposely throws in “leader of future group and*roma” just to give that little extra kick of intimidation to show them that she was going to be hella serious about this. she didn’t get to coach in season 3, sadly. while nova still won, it probably would have went a completely different route had sunmi been in charge. now whether that’s good or bad, she’ll never know. she does know that now she’s not wasting the opportunity.

before the filming for the show she had done extensive research for each contestant. she gave them her own personal scores and critiques from previously aired episodes. sometimes her scores aligned with what the 5 coaches but often times they differed. sunmi went solely on her own notes when she chose the 5 that she did. at least one girl made it through.

“i’m going to be honest, i’m actually happy that i have most of the people i was interested in having on my team here. i think we can do a lot with this,” she says although she’s mainly looking at yewon, changbin and seunghun. she nods. “but, that doesn’t mean i don’t have comments for all. because i definitely do.” these are generally aimed at everyone to be fair. everyone got a comment: be it negative or positive. of the 5, jackson and kenta didn’t get the most phenomenal notes from sunmi. in fact, most of kenta’s notes were straight up critiques.

sunmi didn’t hate the poor kid. in fact, he seemed like he had a great personality. it always shined during his introductions but....that was usually it. it never showed on stage. it kind of faded to the background, really. it was a shame because kenta had that likeable personality but because his stages always were so boring to sunmi (plus the fact that he got no screentime whatsoever), she figured he was better off trying next year. she was not expecting that he’d actually make it to the next round. so she decides to start with his notes first.

“takada kenta,” she points to him. “you, i did not expect to make it past the next round. i didn’t even factor that into my notes. you fade into the background into obscurity far too much. you have the personality but it falls flat beyond your intros. i need you to work hard this week and prove me wrong. i feel like you have it in you but we can’t keep dragging it out of you. it’s too late in the competition, okay? so you must work hard.”

“choi yewon, i actually really like the fact that you have an acute awareness of your talents. same with you, changbin. you both are aware of your strengths and use that to your advantage.” she continues on this way, briefly going over her notes with them so they have an idea of how she’s feeling with each of their development.

sunmi wasn’t as hands-on with the decision making process as she assumes other coaches probably are. she watches, allowing them to brainstorm topics together. for some reason they seem to have it in their head that nova’s brand is mainly just dancing. they’ve been griping about having to push themselves beyond their limits. she’s even heard them trying to come up with other ways to make the performance stand out more. sunmi allows the conversations to continue a bit longer before intervening with some advice.

“i know you all seem to think that nova is nothing but creative stages and strong dancing but you have to look beyond that. nova has a variety of senior artists — use them as your framework. especially nova performances by trainees in the past. nova isn’t about doing something flashy for the sake of flashy-ness. i’ve personally gathered that nova has more of the brand of lasting impressions through memorable stages. doing something flashy and creative is okay as long as your stage doesn’t suffer for it. keep that in mind going forward.”

for the most part, sunmi feels like they have a hardworking group on their hands. they work together well and they communicate. it doesn’t take long for them to come up with a song choice and a team name (Polaris, sunmi smiles just a tiny bit as they decide the name) so sunmi feels like maybe they don’t need much hands on coaching. just mainly some pointers and refinement. as time went on, she realised she was wrong. she was fine with being incorrect if that means she can whip them up into better shape.

she and wendy came up with a training regimen for their vocals. sunmi tried to get them into the habit of not showing their mistakes when they’re doing full run-throughs of the dance. sunmi could see them and would tel them to fix it. she also tells them it’s better for them to not make mistakes as obvious. what if it was the main stage and they froze because they messed up? that wouldn’t go over well for them.

then came the issue of kenta. she told him before that he had the personality, he just had trouble translating it into the stage. as she’s teaching them the choreography and positions it seems like kenta isn’t getting it. it’s a little frustrating to say the least — especially because sunmi personally feels like kenta either shouldn’t be in the competition still or in the nova team specifically. but he’s here so she’s going to work with him until he gets sick of hearing her voice.

it seems like kenta usually needs the most help in regards to performance in general so sunmi takes a lot of time to review with him. “right now you perform and you just don’t exist amongst everyone else. you’re easy to skip over on stage because you don’t bring any of that energy of your personality into your performance,” she tells him. she doesn’t look pleased with what he had to show her. he’s almost boring to watch when he’s performing. it hurts to think that because he’s a bright kid. sunmi sighs.

“not everyone is centre material but you have to make due with the positions you have, okay? there are idols that aren’t the most popular in the group that have viral fancams because they have that energy that draws everyone’s attention. like luxe’s xayah recently had a fancam of hers blow up because of her energy on stage. it’s possible to get out of this box of being forgotten on stage.”

they go through the routine again, this time with sunmi recording him so they could review it together. again she’s disappointed. “you dance stiffly. like you’re clenched or something.” she actually wants to say he dances like he has a stick up his ass but she doesn’t need that going on television.

“let me tell you something: there’s a difference between doing a routine and performing. just like how there’s a difference between actually learning something and just retaining information to spit it back out for the sake of a test. I need you to go from just doing to the routine to actually performing. now the next time I see you, I expect improvements.” she leaves it at that for the day.

seunghun takes initiative and approaches sunmi regarding his own mistakes which she appreciates. he seems to be nervous for his dancing and sunmi understands it. she tells him he just needs to be refined but to come out of that headspace that dancing in general is somehow different than “idol dancing”. “dancing is dancing,” she tells him. “you know you have to get rid of those weird nuances you put in your routine that gives it a little extra texture, you know you have to be on count with your moves and sharp. you apply that to idol routines as well.”

in comparison to the other guys, sunmi is much happier with yewon’s performance. “I feel like you really know what you’re doing but you’re a good dancer as well. I want you to take more liberties when you’re delivering your lines. I know the ats member just really stands there and gives his lines but I need you to really make it more your own.” otherwise yewon’s rap lines would be overlooked easily as she’s just following the performance. “I don’t mean break out into a whole routine. just spice it up, okay? I need my attention on you solely when you deliver those lyrics.”

kenta improved a bit with his performance (thank god) but sunmi noticed when he was singing the bridge towards the end of the song there was something throwing her off. she didn’t like the way he was delivering the line. she stopped them from continuing and focused on kenta. “you sound too strangled here,” she tells him. “sound more melancholic without restricting your vocal chords.” she shows him by example, singing his “추억들이 마른 꽃잎처럼 산산이 부서져가” line. she tells him to follow suit. he isn’t quite getting it. a part of how he performs it makes her eye twitch. she shakes her head and repeats the line again.

kenta isn’t getting it.

they go back and forth a few times. every time she repeats the lines, the aggression in her singing is evident. “I need more feeling from you,” she tells him. “do it again from the chorus before the bridge. kenta if you mess up you’re going to do one of wendy’s plank sessions to help your vocals.”

by the end of the day, kenta seemed to have sung the line properly.

it was a long week. sunmi wasn’t able to go every day for long hours but she tried to keep in touch with them whenever possible. she definitely made time to see them before the final day. “I wanted to say that I’m proud of you all. no one in this team was perfect going into this. I hope all of you realise that. but I’ve seen so much improvement in a lot of you and I’m proud. remember our lessons, our warmups, our tips. you guys got this tomorrow. good luck team Polaris!”