Who is AIKI?
AIKI is a South Korean dancer, choreographer and television personality, specializing in Latin and hip hop dance styles. Her stage name, AIKI, means “the height of a child” (in Korean, “ai” means “child” and “ki” means “height”), as the dancer is only 5’22” tall (157.8 cm) .
The biography of AKI
- Birth name: Kang Hyein
- Art name: AIKI
- Date of birth: 7 September 1989
- Zodiac sign: Virgo
- Nationality: Korean
- MBTI Type: ENFP
- Instagram: @aiki_kr
AIKI’s career
During the winter break of her third year of middle school (early 2004), AIKI attended a dance academy to lose weight, but it was an academy that primarily taught Latin dances, leading to her first encounter with this genre.
While learning dance sports as his main focus, AIKI gained experience learning jazz, TV dance and hip-hop.
As she became more and more involved in dance, AIKI began covering K-pop dance every day, eventually setting a goal of becoming a professional dancer and choreographer. According to AIKI, her teacher deliberately took her to big competitions and helped her see and experience a lot at a young age.
After attending a dance academy as a student for 3 years, AIKI began working as a dance instructor in 2008, when she was graduating from high school. During this time she also competed in Latin dance sports.
It is known that AIKI auditioned for Mnet’s “Dancing 9” and passed the second audition, but found out that she was pregnant and had to withdraw from the show. She then stopped her dancing activity, but resumed her career 1 year after giving birth.
In 2016, AIKI formed the dance duo “All Ready” with fellow dancer COCO (Salang Yang). As the world’s first female dance duo fusing Latin and street dance, they were active while participating in competitions and shows at home and abroad.
In 2017, a video of “All Ready” at the 2016 Seoul Street Dance Competition garnered explosive views on SNS, leading to the duo being offered a spot on NBC’s “World of Dance,” an American dance survival show.
In 2019, AIKI and COCO participated in the third season of “World of Dance”. In this program where world-class dancers come together to compete, AIKI has made its presence known in the dance scene and to the public by advancing to the final 4 rounds.
Despite such a great result at the “World of Dance”, AIKI could not perform abroad due to COVID-19, and so he started working on TikTok, making a name for himself on this platform. It was also during this year that AIKI founded the dance group HOOK with its students.
In 2021, HOOK participated in “Street Woman Fighter” and came second.
Since then, AIKI has continued her dancing career and joined television programs as a famous personality.
More facts about AIKI
AIKI was born in Dangjin-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, the eldest of 1 son and 3 daughters.
The dancer has a daughter named Yeon-woo, born in 2013. She married her husband at the age of 24, immediately after graduating from college. Her husband, a researcher at an engineering school, is 4 years older than her.
According to AIKI, her husband and family played an important role in helping her pursue a career as a professional dancer.
AIKI has 3 siblings: Hye-min (born 1994), Mi-na (born 2000) and her only brother Seok-yoon (born 2006). His parents own a rib restaurant.
She attended Hoseo Middle School, Shinsung University and Sungshin Women’s University
She appeared in “High School Rapper 4” (episode 8) and was a coach on the show “My Teenage Girl”. She also works as a dance professor at Dongguk University.
Some of her nicknames are Cream (her husband is Cookie who produces Cookies & Cream), Kangkangju and Jjang-gu (Crayon).
Source: Namu Wiki
