Jae Shim (Shim Jaewon) is a K-POP performance director, choreographer, and educator with over 25 years of experience shaping how K-POP is trained, staged, and performed.
He is best known for his work at SM Entertainment, where he served as a Performance Director and Training Lead, contributing to the development of multiple generations of K-POP artists. Today, Jae Shim is the co-CEO and Chief Content Officer of Keens, where he focuses on building a new system for performance-based talent development.
This post introduces who Jae Shim is, his background in K-POP performance, and why his work matters within the Keens ecosystem.
Jae Shim’s Background in K-POP Performance
Jae Shim began his career as a performing artist, debuting as the main dancer of Eagle Five in 1998, and later in 2002 as a member of Black Beat, before transitioning into choreography, training, and performance direction.
His career spans the full performance lifecycle — from dancer to choreographer to director — giving him a rare, holistic understanding of how performers grow over time.
At SM Entertainment, Jae Shim worked for over 25 years, contributing to:
Artist training systems
Choreography development
Stage and concert performance direction
Music video and broadcast performance design
He has been involved in projects for artists including:
TVXQ
Super Junior
Girls’ Generation
SHINee
f(x)
EXO
Red Velvet
aespa
RIIZE
Several performances he directed or choreographed — such as Girls’ Generation’s “Into the New World,” SHINee’s “Sherlock,” and EXO’s “Growl” — are widely referenced as landmark moments in modern K-POP performance history.
His most recent work was training SM Entertainment Japan’s first girl group, GPP. It was his first time to work with a 100% non-Korean idol group.
Performance Direction, Not Just Choreography
While Jae Shim is often associated with choreography, his primary expertise lies in Performance Direction.
Performance Direction refers to the discipline of designing how movement functions in real performance contexts — not just how choreography is created, but how it is delivered, sustained, and perceived over time.
This includes:
How movement reads on stage and on camera
How choreography, music, performers, and staging integrate into a unified audience experience
How performers maintain consistency across live stages, tours, and broadcasts
How training translates into repeatable, high-pressure performance
His work extends beyond individual dance moves into the design of performance systems — how performers are trained, evaluated, and refined across years of activity.
This long-view perspective allows Jae Shim to guide artists not only through their training years, but across full performance careers — from early development to long-term stage longevity.
From Industry Practice to Education
After decades working at the highest levels of the K-POP industry, Jae Shim had accumulated something rare: a complete, end-to-end understanding of how performers are trained, shaped, and sustained over time.
Rather than seeing performance as a series of isolated moments — auditions, stages, comebacks — he developed his own practical framework for growth:
how rhythm is built, how movement matures, how consistency is maintained, and how performers continue to improve under real-world pressure.
Over time, this approach became a personal “recipe” for performance development — refined across generations of artists, stages, tours, and live broadcasts.
Keens was created as a way to share that knowledge beyond the boundaries of a single, traditional agency.
At Keens, Jae Shim applies real industry training logic — not abstract theory — to education.
The goal is not to replicate idol schedules or agency systems, but to translate professional performance principles into a scalable, sustainable training framework that can develop future performers anywhere.
Jae Shim’s Role at Keens
As co-CEO and Chief Content Officer, Jae Shim oversees:
Training philosophy and curriculum direction
Performance quality standards
Instructor alignment and evaluation
Creative direction across stages, video, and live performance
All Keens programs — both online and offline — are designed based on methodologies he developed and refined while training active K-POP artists.
This ensures that Keens’ curriculum reflects how performers are actually trained and evaluated in the industry today, rather than abstract or outdated models.
Beyond Titles: Performance as a Field
Rather than positioning himself solely as a choreographer or director, Jae Shim’s work can be understood within a broader field:
Performance Direction
This field focuses on:
how performers move, occupy space, and communicate intention
how training affects stage presence and consistency
how performance creates emotional impact beyond technical accuracy
At Keens, this perspective shapes how students learn — emphasizing foundations, feedback, and long-term growth over short-term results.
Why Jae Shim Matters to Keens
Keens is built on the idea that talent is developed, not discovered.
Jae Shim’s career embodies this belief:
decades of training artists from the ground up
deep understanding of performance under pressure
commitment to passing down knowledge through structured systems
His role at Keens is not symbolic — it directly informs how training is designed, taught, and evaluated. His personal vision also aligns closely with Keens’ philosophy: with the right structure and opportunities, anyone can learn to move, perform, and grow with confidence.
Learn More About Keens
To explore the broader Keens ecosystem, you may also be interested in:
This post is part of Keens Blog, where we document perspectives on performance, training systems, and talent development.