EDMONTON -- A south Edmonton dojang is issuing a challenge that combines a martial art and hit song that both originated in Korea.
The Sky Taekwondo & Out of School Program is closed to the public, like many businesses, for the duration of the pandemic.
“It was a shock and really sad, but we do what we have to do,” owner and headmaster Kichul Nam told CTV News Edmonton.
The studio swiftly turned to hosting free online classes for the public, and in one session, used Pinkfong!’s “Baby Shark” soundtrack during a demonstration.
“People text me and they email me, ‘That’s really funny.”
So Sky Taekwondo is challenging followers to copy the beginner pattern of Taekwondo moves – a Taekwondance, as Nam called it – and submit the video to win a kick target.
“Grandma, father and mother, and then baby sister, brother, they can also participate,” Nam said.
“We know that one or two weeks, people can stay at home, whatever. But time goes by, it’s going to be really challenging.”
The headmaster will update the challenge regularly until people can again start freely moving around their communities.
Nam said he wants the challenge to spread “faster than the coronavirus.”
“We have to work together to… defeat the coronavirus. So let’s work together. We’re going to do our part, and then you do your part.”
Submissions are due to the school's Facebook page April 1. Another family member has to join in the video, and participants must be OK with having it shared online.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg
