Netizens Express Concern About BAE173’s Hangyul Performing Acrobatic Moves After A History Of Injuries

His company has been criticized for its dangerous choreography before.

Netizens are questioning the necessity of a potentially dangerous acrobatic move performed by BAE173‘s Hangyul in the group’s new song “DaSH.”

BAE173 released their fourth mini-album on August 17 with their title track, “DaSH,” a high-energy hip-hop style track. The choreography is strong and fast-paced at parts, with hard-hitting moves.

The concern comes in during the dance break towards the end of the song when member Hangyul performs a backflip. While acrobatics during K-Pop performances is nothing new, groups like 2PM, f(x), and GOT7 have incorporated acrobatic moves into their performance before; Hangyul has a history of ankle injuries.

Before debuting with BAE173, Hangyul debuted in 2017 with the group IM, and competed on the show The Unit: Idol Rebooting Project (also known as The Unit). This competition show gave contestants who had already debuted a chance to demonstrate their talents.

While on the show, he pulled a ligament in his ankle when he landed on it wrong during a dance practice.

As the fellow contestants checked on him, he was asked if he re-injured the same spot, alluding to a prior ankle injury, and Hangyul confirmed that he did re-injure it.

After competing on The Unit, he then competed in Produce x 101 as an MBK Entertainment trainee. In a picture with his fellow contestants, he and two other members had their ankles wrapped.

At the end of the show, he ranked in seventh place, earning himself a spot in the boy group X1. In his new group, he continued to show signs of an ankle injury.

During the promotions for their debut song “Flash,” Hangyul was seen during an M Countdown performance taking a moment to pause and gingerly putting weight on his foot.

At another time, he fell on stage during the group’s rehearsal and powered through the rest of the performance while looking to be in pain.

X1 disbanded in January 2020, and Hangyul continued his dream of being a K-Pop idol with his current group, BAE173. The group is under PocketDol Studio, which MBK Entertainment and Interpark founded.

MBK Entertainment has come under fire for dangerous choreography with their disbanded boy group SPEED.

In 2014, SPEED released “Don’t Tease Me!” which featured daring acrobatics and a sky-high backflip by member Sungmin.

With MBK Entertainment and PocketDol Studio aware of Hangyul’s history of ankle injuries and MBK Entertainment’s past criticism surrounding SPEED’s acrobatic dance, netizens are suggesting that BAE173’s choreography be changed to be safer for him to perform.

• “Oh, I doubt Kim Kwang Soo cares about this at all.”
• “Geez. I hope the choreography gets fixed. My bias is constantly in charge of doing dangerous moves like this, too. So I get why their fans are worried.”
• “This worries me.”
• “Oh, no… Please don’t make someone with a bad ankle do stuff like that…”
• “Maybe the performance can be done exclusively on the comeback stages and then swapped out. It looks like he has weak ankles that get sprained easily. I still remember how shocked I was when he hurt himself in the X1 rehearsal video.”