Veil: A Dance of Resurrection

Taemin Veil Dance Analysis

On September 23, Taemin’s practice video for Veil was released.​ Watching it, I felt that through this choreography Taemin expresses the process of a human being awakening to their own desires and being reborn—like a snake shedding its skin. Let’s trace the key moments of the performance and see how Taemin crosses the boundary of taboo and is resurrected into a new self.

1. Pagan Chorus: Awakening the Sleeping Spirit

The opening chorus is sacred yet pagan at the same time. It is not a hymn of praise to God, but a voice that could emerge from a ritual meant to awaken a sleeping spirit. The depths of the unconscious, the world beyond taboo, open their mouths to whisper to us.

2. The Stranger in the Broken Mirror: A Body Possessed

Here Taemin lowers his head deeply and lets all the strength leave his body. He shows us a body controlled by “the stranger in the broken mirror”—an other self. This recalls Narcissus, who was so bewitched by his reflection that he ultimately lost himself.

3. Good and Evil Entwined: The Serpent and the Cross

On his knees, Taemin folds his arms into the shape of a cross and then gestures as if a serpent opens its jaws. Just as the lyrics say, “good and evil are entangled,” the sacred and the symbol of original sin collide in this dramatic moment. This feels like the point at which Taemin, awakened to desire, begins in earnest to cross the boundary of taboo.

4. Lord Give Me Mercy: A Sinner’s Protest

Having crossed the taboo, Taemin mutters “Lord give me mercy,” looking upward but covering his face—as if, guilty, he cannot meet heaven’s gaze. But in the following line, “My provocative existence bewilders me,” his attitude shifts. He points toward the sky, and I read this as a Narcissistic protest: “It is not only my fault that I have become such a bewitching being. You who made me—God—are not free of responsibility either.”

5. A Dance of Self-Desire: Narcissistic Ecstasy

In most sexy choreographies, casually touching one’s own body is a common strategy, implying that where my hand can reach, another’s hand could reach as well. But in “Can you feel the Fever Ecstasy,” Taemin’s gestures are different. Here he wears the expression of someone truly feeling pleasure, revealing that the object of his desire is not another but himself. The dramatic movement of his hair evokes Narcissus, caressing his own reflection in the pond.

6. Eight Lights: The Paradox of Resurrection

The scene shifts: in the darkness, eight lights shine on Taemin. In Catholic tradition, the number eight symbolizes resurrection and new life, since Christ’s resurrection is believed to have occurred on the “eighth day”—the day after the Sabbath (the seventh day). This is also why baptismal fonts are often octagonal.

But here the resurrection is paradoxical. If Christian resurrection signifies the birth of life (baptism), Taemin’s resurrection is a rebirth through death. As Bataille argued, beyond the taboo lies death, and there all beings exist in continuity, without isolation or alienation, for eternity. Since the number eight also resembles the infinity sign, it symbolizes eternity as well. Taemin subverts the symbol, transforming Christian resurrection into a petite mort.

7. The Heretical Flower: Blossoming Beyond the Taboo

The eight lights glittering around Taemin resemble the blooming of a flower, overlapping with the lyric, “the flower that bloomed breaking the taboo—heresy.” What once signified the resurrection of Christ here becomes a heretical flower blossoming from broken taboos.

8. Spider Lilies and Narcissus: Longing for the Self

In this part, the ethereal harmony of Taemin and his dancers resembles the petals of the red spider lily (sangsa-hwa). The name “sangsa” (相思) carries the meaning of yearning: the leaves and flowers grow from the same root yet never meet, a poetic symbol of sorrow. In this sense, sangsa is not longing for the other, but longing for the self. It recalls Narcissus, who perished in solitude because he could never touch his reflection in the pond.

9. The Serpent’s Shedding: Removing the Veil

The final gesture, loading a gun and aiming it at his own head, evokes death. Yet it also signifies the serpent shedding its skin—the veil—and being born anew. Having climbed the cross, Taemin becomes the serpent itself. To shed one’s skin, to cast off the veil, is to embody death and birth entangled, echoing Georges Bataille’s Eroticism. Through Veil, Taemin casts off the veil, shatters the taboo, and is resurrected as a heretical god.

Conclusion

In Veil, Christian resurrection is transposed into Bataillean death, and Narcissistic self-gaze is embodied through dance. At the place beyond taboo, Taemin rises as a new self. Perhaps, in expressing the universal story of a human awakening to desire, he is also declaring his own artistic ambition: to pursue art over commerce, to create not simply albums but visions.

Wherever he stands—whether in purgatory or in hell—Taemin tells us through dance: No matter what, Taemin is Taemin.