20-Year-Old “Street Dance Girls Fighter” Star Opens Up About Her Fight With Cancer
Street Dance Girls Fighter is the 2021 spin-off show of Mnet’s popular dance reality show Street Woman Fighter. Unlike the latter show, where dance crews consisted of older women (like YGX, HOOK, and HolyBang), the former featured teams composed of girls of high school-going ages. Sixteen crews competed on the show to become the top teenage dance crew and take home ₩10.0 million KRW (about $7,520 USD).
One of these crews was KLWC, which finished in fifth place on the show. The group was led by Lee Chae Rin, a then 18-year-old dancer who stole viewers’ hearts. While Street Dance Girls Fighter earned Lee quite a sizeable fan following, her career rise was rudely interrupted by her cancer diagnosis in 2022. She shared the news with her fans and often kept them updated about her treatment through Instagram. In a recent YouTube video, she gave a detailed view of her current life.
In the video uploaded by the channel Kizzle, Lee revealed that after appearing on the Mnet show, she got many new opportunities and won various dance competitions. But then she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and had to halt all her activities. Right now, she has finished all twelve rounds of her chemotherapy.
In the vlog, Lee gets honest about her fight with the disease, saying, “It was very, very hard for me. Since I am a dancer, I danced every day, and every day I was happy. Not being able to do that made me so depressed.” Having her life’s passion taken away from her because of cancer, Lee said she spent her days anxious about the future.
Though the chemotherapy took a toll on her body and stamina, Lee is far from giving up. With her treatment plan completed, she shared that she is slowly returning to the groove. She has been working out to strengthen her body and even went to a dance studio to attend a class after a long break.
Lee also met with her KLWC members and shot a dance reel on NewJeans‘ “Super Shy.” While discussing resuming her dance after getting treated for cancer, Lee shared that initially, she was insecure about losing her hair, so she would appear wearing bandanas in public. But now her hair has grown, and she doesn’t feel the need to always wear them. Her members also hyped her new look with short hair.
The dancer said that her outlook on life has changed entirely after cancer diagnosis. “Before, I always wanted to be no.1,” she confessed, adding, “Now I know it’s okay not to be the best. Just don’t get stressed out and be happy.”
Lee Chae Rin’s resilience and passion certainly go beyond her 20-year-old age. We wish her all the best for the future!
You can watch her full vlog here:
https://youtu.be/xKDmABJ4J7Y
