A song drops, and whoever knows the choreography runs into the middle of the circle. That's the whole game. Random play dance is the purest version of the K-pop fandom — no stage, no audition, no ticket, just a speaker and the part of the chorus everyone learned from the same video.
We're taking it to the arch at Washington Square Park on the evening of Tuesday, September 22, with NYU KNESIS running the set list. This one comes in two halves: a judged tournament with photocards on the line, then free play, where the circle goes back to being a circle and the judges can jump in too.
It's free, but you do need to register on this page so we know how many people to plan the circle for. Registering takes a name and an email, and that's the whole ask.
What a random play dance looks like
A GoToe random play dance in New York — the one where NCT 127 turned up. This is the format, minus the idols. 토경아 약먹자 (GoToe) ↗
What to expect
- →A rolling random play circle — a track starts, the people who know it take the middle.
- →Ten judged rounds with 40 photocards on the line, then an hour of free play.
- →All levels. Watching from the fountain steps and screaming for your friends absolutely counts.
- →NYU KNESIS on the set list — NYU's very own K-pop cover dance club.
- →Free and outdoors — but register on this page first, so we know how many to expect.
The night in two halves
Ten rounds, song by song, with five judges working the circle. Dance the ones you know.
Standard random play dance, nobody scoring anything. The judges can jump in too.
How the tournament works
A song plays and everyone jumps in as normal. The five judges each hold a different part of the circle, walk through the dancers, and pick the two best in their area — ten dancers in all.
The floor is then cleared for those ten, who dance the song's chorus for the judges. The judges name one winner, who picks two photocards, and two runners-up, who pick one each.
That's one round, and there are ten of them — forty photocards in total, all of them chosen by the people who win them.
Judging the tournament
Preliminary line-up — we'll update this page if it changes.
New York University's own student-led K-pop dance cover club.
A substantial membership, almost 15,000 subscribers on YouTube, and a calendar built around planning, learning, practising and executing high-level covers of the songs that are actually charting.
They hire professionals to film and edit their public performances, publish them on their socials, and pull thousands of views — sometimes well over a hundred thousand. Every semester closes with an elaborate show at NYU built around their best covers of the term.