Chapter 337: Singing and Dancing

Wu Ciren watched their dance moves attentively. Although he came from a traffic police background, he used to be an idol otaku. In another time and space, his greatest pleasure was to fly around the country—and occasionally abroad—during his holidays to observe and interact with the girls from idol groups, maid cafes, and otaku dance groups. He was well-versed in the characteristics, history, and individual situations of various groups, able to recount them like a family treasure.

To create his own idol group! This was his greatest ideal after transmigrating. Although he had been forced to return to his old profession after D-Day, during the difficult pioneering stage, even establishing a formal artistic group would be criticized by the industrial party as “wasting resources on sentimentality.” Naturally, he couldn’t take the lead. Besides, he couldn’t find any girls in this era who met his aesthetic tastes. But this dream had never been extinguished. On the contrary, it had grown hotter in the silence. During several years of dormancy, he gradually gathered his companions. Seeing that the first five-year plan was about to be completed, and the Senate’s manpower, material, and financial resources had undergone a dramatic change, his ideal finally surfaced.

The Plaid Skirt Club was more the result of their instigation than Yuan Ziguang’s creation. What did Yuan Ziguang know about IDOLs? He was just an ACG uniform fetishist. If it weren’t for the need to build a broader united front and, incidentally, gain convenience in selecting female students, this “impure element” wouldn’t have had the chance to represent him.

Let him “represent” for a while for now. Anyway, another person meant another sponsor. Creating an artistic group was a money-burning business. If he hadn’t become one of the five hundred baboons in this era, he wouldn’t have dared to play this game.

He was now scrutinizing the girls who were dancing energetically in the uniforms he had “designed,” fully enjoying the feeling of being a Tsunku or an Akimoto Yasushi.

The choreography for “21st Century Love Revolution” was from an early Morning Musume song. By the standards of the 2010s, it was already a bit outdated, but it was still a typical IDOL dance. It had a strong rhythm and simple choreography. Liu Shuixin had memorized it after watching the “Morning Musume Official Tutorial” video file a few times. It was relatively easy for people without a professional dance foundation to pick up.

Even so, for most people, memorizing a minute and a half of dance moves in two days and keeping in time was not an easy task. Even for otaku dance groups, COS groups, and even so-called professional groups in China, it was common to be off-beat. So Wu Ciren wasn’t too concerned about this.

What he paid most attention to was the power of their dancing. Wu Ciren knew that girls like these, who at most had some posture training but little else, would find it difficult to have the expressiveness and coordination of professional dancers. Just being able to keep up with the rhythm was already very good. When dancing, they could only mechanically imitate, with no expressiveness to speak of. The transitions between movements were mostly not smooth, with a clear sense of stagnation, and the biggest problem was that the dancing was “soft.”

When a dance is “soft,” the whole performance feels “lacking.” Even if the movements are proficient, it lacks sufficient aesthetic appeal.

Although Liu Shuixin looked delicate and weak, her body movements when dancing were very powerful. Of course, that was a professional level. In the last training camp, Liu Shuixin had already pointed this out to them. In Wu Ciren’s opinion, as long as an applicant could give the impression of “dancing with effort” rather than just going through the motions, they were basically qualified in dancing.

He noticed that most of the previous groups had a tendency towards soft dancing. There weren’t many girls who could show “power.” He carefully ticked the numbers of the few girls he was satisfied with.

The minute-and-a-half dance ended quickly. Wu Ciren whispered a few words to Dongmen Chuiyu, then said a few more to Liu Shuixin. He stood up:

“Next, you will repeat this dance. Pay attention this time to have a smile on your face. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, but your facial expression cannot stop. Please dance seriously with a smile.”

“Yes—”

The music started again. Since they had already danced it once, the physically weaker girls started to fall behind the rhythm. Wu Ciren unhesitatingly drew a cross under her number.

The music stopped.

“This time, everyone’s expressiveness was much better than before. So, a smile is really important,” Wu Ciren commented. “When you dance, the first thing is to maintain a smile. But just maintaining a smile is not enough. You have to convey your emotions to the audience. So when you dance, your eyes must be focused, understand? It can’t be a vacant feeling. Although you were all looking at us just now, your eyes were wandering, completely devoid of emotion.”

Next was the singing segment. The chosen song was a Chinese pop song with a simple rhythm and no historical context, a typical “earworm” that was easy to learn. While they went to prepare, Liu Shuixin smiled at Wu Ciren and said, “I never thought you had such a good understanding of performance.”

“It’s just my personal experience, not professional.” Wu Ciren felt a little smug: at least I’ve watched tens of thousands of video files and no less than a few hundred IDOL selection programs. I still understand these basic concepts.

“No wonder you’re so keen on creating an idol group. So you’re a senior enthusiast,” Liu Shuixin said, tidying her slightly messy hair. “But in my opinion, these girls not only have a weak foundation, but their aptitude is also not very good. Even with a lot of effort in training, they will be far inferior to the few chosen by Dongfang and the others…”

“Teacher Liu, you don’t understand this. For an IDOL group, you don’t need to be too high-end. Even appearance is not the most important thing. Immaturity and a sense of greenness are selling points. You could even say that a ‘sense of inferiority’ is also an attractive element…”

Liu Shuixin burst out laughing. “You’re something else…”

That smile was as picturesque as a painting, tender as water. Although she was already a wife and mother, she was still full of charm. Wu Ciren couldn’t help but feel a stir in his heart: a professional actor’s expressiveness is no joke.

He quickly composed himself. “So we still need Teacher Liu to train them a lot. Although a sense of being an amateur, no, a sense of being an amateur, has a sense of intimacy and can bring the audience closer, as a performing arts group, you still need a certain level of professionalism. Our club can only rely on you as our professional teacher.”

“Don’t you worry. I’d be happy to have something to do. My profession is not very useful here anyway. Teaching posture classes to the maid class is too elementary,” said Liu Shuixin. As the star of a song and dance troupe, she was skilled in both singing and dancing. After following her husband here for several years, she had basically had no opportunity to use her professional skills. Fortunately, she had made practicing a habit and hadn’t let her skills rust.

“You have to teach at the College of Arts and Sciences, and also for the cultural troupe and our club. It’s really too hard on you.” Wu Ciren quickly offered some polite words. For now, she was the only professional, so he had to flatter her. “Our Plaid Skirt Club is investing in a few projects related to clothing fabrics. Once we have results, we will definitely ask you to try them first.”

“That’s great. We have too few clothing fabrics here. For performance costumes, even a lot of silk fabric is not as good as the synthetic fabrics of the old world.”

The singing was about to begin, so their chat came to an end.

Each singer was given a wooden fake microphone and sang in turn facing the judges. The chosen song was a Chinese pop song with a simple rhythm and lyrics without any historical context, a typical earworm.

“Sing with your feelings,” Liu Shuixin said. “Don’t be afraid to sing wrong, sing with your heart.”

Singing was not the strong suit of idol groups, nor was it a very important matter. If an idol group’s live performance wasn’t lip-synced or half-mic’d, it was often a train wreck. However, in this era, the requirements could not be set too low because they lacked sufficient technical equipment. At best, they could only provide a megaphone. If they were to release records, it would be a different story. At least they had semi-professional recording equipment, and setting up a simple recording studio was not a problem. They also had related computer software for audio editing.

But on stage, there was no professional performance audio equipment for things like audio input/output effect modification and mixing. Although a few Yuanlao said they could DIY one if they had access to controlled resources, it would be meaningless if it couldn’t be mass-produced. At most, it could equip one theater, but it couldn’t be popularized.

Therefore, a higher standard for singing ability was also set in this selection, to avoid embarrassment during live performances. In this era, where gramophones were not yet widespread and the purchasing power of the people was very low, releasing records was meaningless. The focus was on live performances.

After listening to a few people’s singing in turn, during the break before the sixth group came in, Liu Shuixin asked Wu Ciren, “Have you considered having them practice their voice?”

“Practice their voice? Vocal training?”

“Yes, it’s also vocal training, but it’s the traditional Chinese style of vocal training. The basic skill of opera actors.” Seeing his confusion, Liu Shuixin explained, “I don’t know if we can produce our own wired microphones and speakers. If not for the time being, they will have to practice their voice. Otherwise, in a theater with more than 100 seats, the people in the back row basically won’t be able to hear.”

“I’m not very clear on that either, but it should be possible,” Wu Ciren said with less confidence. “Small theater performances are our main planned performance model.”

“A small theater of about 100 people can barely allow the back row to hear through acoustics, but it also requires the performers on stage to have a certain level of skill. If you’ve seen an unplugged concert, you’ll know that it’s not something ordinary people can handle. Given the foundation of the girls you’ve chosen, I’m afraid it will be quite difficult. Besides, this group will definitely have to go down to the grassroots or perform in larger venues in the future. In a large performance hall or an open-air stage, even with the best skills, without amplification equipment, you can’t guarantee the performance effect.”