YG Entertainment to Establish a Global Educational Platform, “Will Reveal Know-Hows Accumulated for 22 Years”
[머니투데이=김건우 기자] “Will select trainees among students to debut them as artists, best facilities + reasonable prices”
YG Entertainment will establish a global educational platform to discover new artists. They will train approximately 1,000 students who applied from all over the world to discover new artists, while giving the public an opportunity to experience YG Entertainment’s culture and training system.
YGX, YG Entertainment’s subsidiary company, held a press conference for ‘X ACADEMY’ on the 10th in Mapo-gu, Seoul.
‘X ACADAMY’ will be a dance and vocal education venue that will pass on YG Entertainment’s culture, experience, and training system accumulated and established for the past 22 years. Not only those who aspire to become artists, but also the public can participate as a hobby, exercise, or the promotion of one’s health. The academy will start operating on the 13th with a special lecture by Kinjaz, the famous dance crew originating from the United States.
Lee Jaewook, the co-director of YGX explained, “We’ve been preparing to establish an educational venue for the past 10 years but substantialized the establishment of ‘X ACADEMY’ while producing an audition program last year. It will be a place that passes on YG Entertainment’s culture and experience”.
He emphasized that the fact that dance teams such as HITECH, CRAZY, and famous vocal trainers who work with YG artists including BIGBANG, WINNER, iKON, and BLACKPINK differentiates the academy with existing dance and vocal academies.
Co-director Kim Woojin explained, “The existing entertainment agencies are closed in the sense that when trainees send practice videos, they wouldn’t know what kind of process they’ve been through. X ACADEMY is an open platform that can spot potential and specialness even if the individual currently lacks skills”.
‘X ACADEMY’ will be composed of Class Y which regular people attend, Class G for people who pursue a professional career, and Class X for the ones who show outstanding potential in Class G. Class G will be operated as 3-month classes and 6-month classes.
The academy aims to debut outstanding students from Class X as artists, since representative producer YANG HYUN SUK will frequently monitor the class to select trainees himself. Class X will be given an opportunity to take an exclusive audition to become trainees or be part of YG’s dance teams HITECH and CRAZY. It is expected that approximately 60% of the students will be part of the regular class, and the remaining 40 % will be attending the professional classes. They will take up to a total of 1,000 students.
YGX emphasized that the facilities and human resources of ‘X ACADEMY’ are at the highest level. The academy has various facilities including dance rooms with classic and street themes, an additional vocal room, and private teaching rooms.
Representative Kim stated, “People would think an academy operated by YG Entertainment would be expensive, but prices are at the mid-upper level compared to other dance and vocal academies. Our goal is to provide education with the best facilities at a reasonable price”.
He also added, “Since we are getting inquiries from students in the US, Japan, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand, there will be a K-Pop class for foreign fans. Our final goal is to expand our business to Japan and China, and ultimately establish an art institution in Korea”.
2018. 10. 10.
