7: Comeback Diaries - Juliette Tran 💜

Unprepared:

Debut Performance of Black Swan

by

Juliette Tran

When Black Swan was released as an art film performed by MN Dance Company, the paired back song playing alongside the fluid movements of the dancers evoked many emotions, such that I knew this comeback was not going to be easy. Eagerly awaiting the performance of the song by BTS themselves, rewind back to Jan. 17th and James Corden announced BTS would make their debut performance of Black Swan on the Late Late Show on Jan. 28th. I quickly scribbled this date into my BTS comeback diary notes, and the day had come sooner than expected.

As this is my first BTS comeback, I had researched in depth into what to expect, what I should do to prepare and how to enjoy this time with fellow ARMY. All the preparations I had in place for each comeback milestone so far has not prepared me emotionally or physically for what I have actually experienced: loss of sleep, late nights and constant messaging with ARMY.

January 28th has arrived. I prepare for the day excitedly, finish work on time, drive to pick up my son from school and we eat an early dinner in record time. I arrived home just in time to plug in my laptop to the TV and watch via a live stream at 4:37pm AEST. Sitting on the couch eagerly awaiting the performance it starts and my jaw drops, the entire time, with my hands clutching my heart.

The stage is set: a dark eerie woodlands scene, a waterfall heavily flowing and blue light illuminating the background and dancefloor. The boys dressed in black resembling black swans on a pond of water; motionless until the music starts, they all move in unison, fluidly and timed perfectly to the beat, as we all expect. Barefoot on the stage, this is not what I expected – were we getting a contemporary dance from all 7 members? The answer was a resounding yes!

Throughout the performance it was captivating to visualise the motions along with the dark lyrics, and BTS doing their thang. The stability and rawness of their live performance allowed me to see exactly who was singing which part; as from the recorded autotune version, it is purposefully difficult to differentiate each member’s voice. The transition from Yoongi to Namjoon’s rapping was full of a dark kind of energy, then leading into Hoseok’s rap with bursts of light as our ray of hope always brings to the stage. The rap line covers their ground as a strong unit on this stage as they have always done. The strength of the vocal line – Jin, V, Jimin, and Jungkook together singing the chorus, delivers a heavy and powerful message of the black swan and its ability to rise out of the darkness and isolation without losing itself.

Late Late Show with James Corden

The choreography and dance style saw Jimin in his dancing element, with Hoseok and Jungkook also coming in close to his comfort zone. There were moments in the performance when it seemed Jimin was the only black swan in that lake, as he portrayed and executed the character so perfectly. Every member embodied the movements of the dance style flawlessly as if they had been contemporary dancers all this time. I have watched it over and over again, and still captivated as if it was the first time I was seeing it all. This will no doubt go on to be a dance masterpiece; while showing us that Bangtan are capable of mastering a range of dance genres, adding contemporary dance to their repertoire.

In interviews at the Grammy awards 2020, questions were asked regarding the comeback and Namjoon clearly and repeatedly mentioned it will be ‘harder’. I guess he can say post comeback that he did warn us and we definitely got a ‘harder’ BTS than we have ever seen before. My jaw has not lifted from the floor as I write this review 6 days later.