Rising Stars: Meet Tri-Beats of Kansas City, MO

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tri-Beats

Hi Tri-Beats, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Tri-Beats is a performance trio formed by siblings Geena, Natassja, and Gio. Since we were young, we’ve participated in activities together, including Taekwondo for many years! Now, as Tri-Beats, we perform original choreography to genres like J-POP (Japanese pop), K-POP (Korean pop), and more at different events.

When we were younger, we loved dancing to K-POP and trendy J-POP dances. Growing up, we were influenced a lot by media like music videos, videos of Random Play Dances, and anime shows. We sang classic Vocaloid songs, followed dance practice videos in our living room, and overall loved consuming music media – we still do today! Our beginnings range from Natassja dancing to the classic Vocaloid track “Happy Synthesizer” to Gio learning BTS choreography from music videos.

Before we started as Tri-Beats, we were interested in K-POP choreography. In 2022, we teamed up to create Tri-Beats and perform original choreography for the first time. The current majority of our performances include original choreography to J-POP music; however, there weren’t many choreographies on the internet to learn from already. Starting original choreography was a first-time endeavor for us, but we soon realized how fun it was and received positive reactions from the audience.

We love to take the stage at anime conventions (Naka-Kon in Overland Park, KS), cultural festivals (Japanese Fall Festival in Springfield, MO), and more related events (Midwest K-POP Festival in Bloomington, MN). We also love uploading dance cover videos to our YouTube channel.

For the latest updates, follow our Instagram at @tri.beats.kc!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We have faced many challenges along the way, so it has not been a smooth road. This pursuit involves a lot of creative choices, such as editing audio, social media posts, and (specifically for our group) choreographing. Because we want to include all of our team members’ opinions, we make sure to discuss our choices together.

We all have different schedules, so getting together for meetings and practices can be difficult if not discussed in advance. We love putting together themed outfits, and song choices differ often, so those must be talked about and compromised on. Sometimes, events don’t provide information early enough, and we must do our best to get our performance together by then.

Despite our struggles, we have still managed to prepare and practice to the best of our abilities.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Tri-Beats is a dance performance group mainly focusing on Japanese pop music, like Vocaloid, VTubers, and anime music. Some of our lesser known performances include other genres like K-POP and C-POP. As aforementioned, we perform at events such as anime conventions and cultural festivals. A lot of our activity is recognized at anime conventions, including local ones like Naka-Kon. Naka-Kon 2022 was our first performance as Tri-Beats. Surprisingly, we received a lot of love from our debut there, and we have continuously gone back to perform at their Idol Festival (Sunflower Idol Festival).

We are known for specializing in original choreography for our performances. J-POP events, like Idol Festivals, typically include dance covers or already-existing choreography found on the internet. However, not all songs we choose to perform have a pre-existing choreography to learn from. Therefore, we decided to create choreography ourselves, and that garnered some attention in the beginning. It’s not common in this community to create original choreography, so we’ve received praise from those who have seen our performances.

Our recent performance was at Naka-Kon’s 2025 Sunflower Idol Festival. We talked with so many people, from audience members to fellow performers. The love we receive after a performance makes us feel so supported, and this year was no different. We received more offers and expressions of interest towards collaborations, and we couldn’t be more thankful to experience that kind of support. We hope others of the community can feel our support as well.

Our progress in preparing for a performance starts with selecting music that fits the theme of the event. Me (Geena) and Gio are the main choreographers, so we usually spend time on our own to work with the music at first. Once some or most of the choreography is completed, we meet for a full-group practice with all members and teach it. We work through our positions, record a few demos, and clean the overall performance. These full-group practices take a few days until we all agree on the final product.

Gio is proud of being able to take creative initiative in choreographing to songs that he likes. I take pride in choreographing and executing fun performances. I love the reaction from people when they watch a routine that they’ve never seen before. Natassja eagerly participates in learning and contributing to routines as a member who didn’t have any dancing experience prior to forming Tri-Beats.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
We don’t consider ourselves risk-takers, but we have come across some situations. When collaborating with other dance groups, it’s a risk because your schedules don’t always align. Preparing with a larger group of people, rather than just the three of us, can be tricky to coordinate before a performance.

Some other smaller risks include applying for certain events or entering competitions. We always seek performance opportunities to grow and share our passion, but there’s always a risk when it comes to events like competitions. Though we practice to the best of our abilities, we don’t always make the cut (placing in a competition, being accepted into events, etc.). We have to move on and continue improving. We can’t let a few rejections stop our journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tri.beats.kc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tri-beats1809
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tri.beats.kc
• Gmail: [email protected]