K-pop icons from BTS to Seventeen have performed routines crafted by Youngjun Choi. The veteran choreographer now sees AI as a path for anyone with an idea, a phone, and no formal training to build the next breakout K-pop dance.

The project began six years ago when Choi connected with Joon Jung, a dancer in his twenties eager to create lasting income streams for choreographers.

With more than 800 K-pop routines credited to him, Choi partnered with Jung to start MVNT. The firm develops an AI platform for programmable dance similar to Suno for music. Jung brought tech and crypto experience to the venture and serves as CEO.

In 2024 MVNT secured $200,000 in seed capital from Seoul-based Mashup Ventures. The startup is now raising a pre-Series A round targeting $1 million to advance its platform.

The creative force behind landmark K-pop routines

Choi, now in his forties, has spent two decades in dance. He has witnessed careers rise and fade while shaping some of the genre's most memorable sequences, including BTS's early hit "I Need U."

He highlights Seventeen's "Falling Flower," a dense three-and-a-half-minute piece, as a personal favorite. Choi noted that such routines can require weeks or months of rehearsal even for elite performers like Seventeen.

Despite their influence, Choi and fellow choreographers found they lacked ongoing revenue from the work they created.

The company began not as an AI effort but as a solution to an intellectual-property gap.

"Dancers may have tens of thousands of pieces of choreography out there, but there is no system for them to benefit," Jung told Business Insider. "YouTube and word of mouth are the main options, yet the community is not capturing the revenue it could."

Sharing profits with creators

MVNT enables dancers to build portfolios and earn credit each time their uploaded choreography is reused. The database then trains AI tools that let users input music and receive new routines.

The goal, the founders say, is to ensure original creators receive compensation rather than being excluded. The app and database are under development, with 1,100 users and more than 2,000 routines already generated on the platform.

Initial users include meme creators, mirroring Suno's casual-music start. As the model matures, Choi and Jung expect professional choreographers to adopt it for ideation. Enterprises can also access the API for animation and choreography tasks.

MVNT has demonstrated its tools for animation, choreography, and interactive content, according to Ohchan Kwon of Epic Games Korea. The firm collaborated with Epic to build an AI music-to-dance suite inside Unreal Engine.

Dance remains a human endeavor, Choi emphasizes

Jung and Choi argue that critics of AI choreography overlook its broader value.

"Just as Canva supports design and Suno aids music production, we view MVNT as a way for people to explore dance and reduce entry barriers," Jung said. "We aim to make the creator economy more sustainable so dancers can earn enough to continue their craft."

When asked if AI could ever replicate a signature piece such as Seventeen member Hoshi's "Spider" - a routine Choi has called his masterpiece - he stressed that MVNT seeks to assist, not replace, choreographers.

"Tools that help generate routines would open fresh creative directions," Choi said. "Dance still comes from the heart and soul. Our aim is for the technology to serve as an assistant, like an employee."