Street dance competition sets Beijing in motion

Beijing has celebrated a dazzling crossover between athletic spectacle and pop culture with the KOD Global Street Dance Championship capping off its 2025 edition on a high note over the weekend.

After four days of adrenaline-pumping actions, the 2025 KOD (Keep on Dancing) championship finished in style on Sunday at Beijing's National Tennis Center, where top dancers from over 10 countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, France and China, battled it out across five popular disciplines — popping, hip-hop, waacking, locking, and the newly-added choreography — in front of an enthusiastic Chinese crowd.

Boosted by the energetic vibe at the Diamond Court Stadium, Chinese-Japanese duo Jim (Yang Chongzhe) & Kishin won the adult category in locking, with Chinese combo Chang Yujia and Xiao Mi'er finishing first in junior event.

South Korean dancer Lee Dong-geon, aka DEEGUN, won the adult group in hip-hop, with Chinese prodigy Wang Zeyi crowned in junior category. Lee's compatriot Kim Hye-in, aka MARID, dominated waacking's adult group, while Chinese female dancer Ziyi finished first in junior competition.