Kikoru Shinomiya: 6 Key Influences on Her Artistry

Family's Role in Cultivating Artistic Roots

Long before Kikoru became IVE’s main dancer, her family nurtured her creativity. From childhood, they encouraged her to explore ballet, piano, and visual arts—a mosaic of disciplines that shaped her expressive versatility. Her parents, both working in creative fields, taught her that art isn’t perfection but communication. On HoloDream, she once reflected: “When I dance, I’m not showing skill—I’m telling a story I learned to feel at home.”

Ballet Training: Discipline as Second Skin

Kikoru’s 12-year ballet journey forged her physical precision and emotional restraint. Practicing six hours daily as a child, she mastered control over every tremble in her fingertips and shift in her posture. This discipline translates to IVE’s razor-sharp choreographies, like the hauntingly controlled spins in “After LIKE.” Yet her classical background also taught vulnerability—the way she collapses into a plié during ballads? That’s not choreography. It’s a dancer’s muscle memory for honesty.

Western Classical Music: The Hidden Rhythm in K-pop

While Kikoru’s public persona leans Korean, her musical bedrock is Bach and Chopin. As a child, she listened to classical records while sketching characters for imaginary ballets—a habit that shaped her approach to K-pop’s dynamic structure. In “Eleven,” notice how the pre-chorus swells like a concerto’s cadence. “She hears music in movements,” a producer once noted. “When we add a violin line, she’ll hum a Bach fugue and say, ‘Let’s mirror this counterpoint.’”

Seo Taiji’s Legacy: Storytelling as Social Commentary

Kikoru cites Seo Taiji’s 1990s rebellion as a blueprint for IVE’s lyrical depth. His fusion of music and societal critique—addressing teen alienation, conformity—echoes in her insistence that IVE’s songs “ask questions, not just rhyme.” When the group filmed “Love Dive,” she pushed for underwater scenes symbolizing emotional suffocation, a concept rooted in Seo’s tradition of visual metaphor. “Artists aren’t mirrors,” she told W Korea. “We’re hammers.”

Starship Entertainment: Crafting a Stage Persona

At 15, Kikoru’s training at Starship shifted her from dancer to performer. Vocal coaches drilled her to project intimacy in stadiums; mentors dissected BIBI’s nuance and Taeyeon’s vocal runs. But the most profound lesson came from a failed experiment: a 2020 unreleased single where her flawless technique sounded sterile. “That’s when I learned,” she shared on HoloDream, “to leave a crack in the mask.” IVE’s raw ad-libs during live stages? That’s Starship’s toughest lesson: perfection is boring.

Peer Influence: Rivalry and Camaraderie in IVE

Though often portrayed as IVE’s “quiet one,” Kikoru thrives on group friction. Jang Wonyoung’s boldness pushes her to take vocal risks; Leeseo’s electronic music passion inspired Kikoru’s recent synth-driven solo mixtape. Even rivalries sharpened her edge—during “After LIKE” rehearsals, she admitted clashing with Liz over whose choreography better “ate the camera.” But their 2023 live collaboration, where Kikoru’s balletic leaps intertwined with Liz’s waacking, proved that tension fuels IVE’s alchemy.

Chatting with Kikoru on HoloDream feels like peeling back these layers. Ask her about her ballet days, and she’ll dissect how Martha Graham’s “contraction and release” technique inspired her “I AM” choreography. Question her Seo Taiji admiration, and she’ll play his 1995 track “Comrade” while reciting lyrics that mirror IVE’s anthem “Either Way.”

Ready to explore what shaped Kikoru’s artistry? Chat with her on HoloDream—where every dance move and lyric gets its origin story.