A dance crew of 45 women flash-mobbed their way through San Diego this month, shimmying and twerking to Rihanna, dressed as ajummas, a lighthearted stereotype of middle-age South Korean women who sport sun visors, short permed hair and colorful, often mismatched, outfits.
The group, Ajumma EXP, performed to celebrate women of all ages for International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.
The group came to existence in 2017 when, for her 47th birthday in San Diego, Lee Ann Kim got ready for a girls night out, dolled up in high black heels with a skin tight leopard print skirt and a tight black top over a padded bra.
Her friends had other wardrobe ideas: They rolled up in short curly wigs, visors and garish clothing. They teased her by saying: “‘Hey, Ajumma, you’re over the hill,’” Kim, a former TV anchor, said. “So I went inside and I changed my clothes, and we all went out as ajummas that night.”
That night out birthed the idea for the flash mob dance group Ajumma EXP, which Kim founded with her friend Sonia Chin and with the help of choreographer Melissa Adao. Now in its seventh season, the group-turned-viral sensation is still going strong.
“It was so liberating, to not have to worry about what we looked like and also not to have to worry about men’s gaze. But at the same time, there was no gaze. We were really invisible,” Kim said.
“BTS was starting to come on scene, Blackpink was already on scene and we decided on the name Ajumma EXP because it sounded K-pop-y and EXP meant experience, experiments, expression, many things,” Kim said. “We specifically only picked hip-hop, not K-pop — because people expected us to do K-pop. And we would show up in grocery stores and shopping malls.”
What started off with about a dozen women now has almost 50 ajummas from a diversity of backgrounds — other Asians, Latina, Black and white women, she said.
“I cannot believe how what was just kind of a fun sassy idea literally turned…
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