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Filipina friends Liyette Amandy and Keith Louisse C Dinglasan are taking social media by storm with their synchronised sequences and steps in a bid to showcase the two things they love most ... dance and the kingdom.
The self-taught dancing duo, called Elyssian, started making moves together in 2018. In September 2020, they uploaded their first video on YouTube which, to their delight, garnered around a 100 subscribers and thousands of views.
“When we started, we expected to film our videos indoors until our parents stepped in,” said Liyette, 18, who is going to pursue a degree in multimedia studies at the University of the Philippines Open University shortly.
“My mother Mariel insisted we film outdoors so that our videos look even better. Not a lot of people film dance covers here, so we wanted to be the first ones to do it. Through our videos, we aim to help viewers see the beautiful locations of Bahrain that they may not know of yet.”
The talented teens create routines to their favourite songs across the kingdom’s hotspots such as Block 338 or in front of the Bahrain World Trade Centre as well as in hidden gems such as Karzakan’s forest and in some areas of Sakhir.
“I hope to get more recognition and show more beautiful places so that viewers see what a pretty country Bahrain truly is,” said 16-year-old Keith who lives in Jurdab and studies at the New Christian Academy. “We aim to inspire people to do what they want.
“We also hope to be known as the first K-Pop cover duo in Bahrain.”
K-pop, short for Korean popular music, is a genre that originated in South Korea.
Liyette and Keith have been motivated to move and shake by several Chinese pop and K-pop idols such as Liu Yuxin, Kong Xueer, Lisa Manoban and Shin Ryujin besides a group called Stray Kids.
The girls’ true guiding lights have been their family members.
“We would love to thank our parents for helping us get to our favourite locations and being such great cameramen,” said Liyette, from Tubli, who took ballet as a child and learned to dance from videos online. “They even help us style and create our outfits. Both my parents, Mariel and Abel, were Glee Club members when they were younger, so I always had them as my first mentors.”
Keith added: “Our siblings help in filming our dances and our friends cheer us on non-stop. They have supported us since the beginning. The ones who truly inspired me though are my parents, Nenile and Neldrick. They are proud whenever I do the things I love. They make me smile when they say they dance better than me or make up funny dance steps. They have been supporting me in this channel and teaching me how to improve in every way.
“Soon, we will be making question-and-answer videos so that viewers can learn more about us.”
Elyssian can be found @elyssiancovers on Instagram with links to their videos on Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
