How ALLDAY PROJECT's Tarzzan Skipped the K-pop Trainee System

Tarzzan debuted with the co-ed group ALLDAY PROJECT on June 23, 2025, with no trainee contract behind him. He arrived from fashion runways and international dance podiums, not from years inside a company dorm.

A debut announcement, not a graduation

THEBLACKLABEL confirmed Tarzzan as a member of its new group on June 9, 2025, and ALLDAY PROJECT debuted two weeks later with the single album “Famous.” There was no survival show elimination, no multi-year countdown to a debut date.

His official bio lists his pre-debut work simply as modeling and dance. That is unusual enough in K-pop that his past modeling photos went viral months after debut, with fans piecing together a career he never hid but that most idols simply don't have.

The stage name points to that same pre-idol career. “Tarzzan” started as a nickname after he performed in minimal clothing — bottoms only — at the 2022 Berlin International Dance Competition, and THEBLACKLABEL kept it as his professional name at debut.

Why K-pop treats the trainee system as close to mandatory

Korea's entertainment business runs on what is usually called the agency system: a company controls an artist's training, image, contracts and schedule for years — sometimes starting in early adolescence — in exchange for covering the cost of turning that person into a debut-ready idol.

The trainee period is the visible part of that system. It is an in-house apprenticeship in singing, dancing, language and media presence, and it decides whether, and when, a recruit actually debuts.

Industry data collected by the Korea Creative Content Agency puts the average trainee period at two to four years, with roughly a quarter of trainees training five years or longer. Many never debut at all.

The range among well-known idols shows how much that number can swing. BLACKPINK's Jennie trained about six years at YG Entertainment, while TWICE's Jihyo trained closer to a decade after signing with JYP Entertainment as a child. Against either figure, Tarzzan's zero years stands out.

Trainees are not paid a salary

The trainee period is not employment in the usual sense. Companies typically cover training costs and sometimes basic living expenses, then recoup that spending from earnings after debut — if the trainee debuts.

That arrangement exists because a K-pop group is assembled, not discovered: vocal blend, choreography formations and stage chemistry are drilled and adjusted for years before an agency commits to a lineup. Skipping that process, as Tarzzan did, is rare enough to be its own story.

The seven-year rule that shapes how agencies place their bets

Part of why agencies train so cautiously traces back to a 2009 Fair Trade Commission ruling. After members of TVXQ sued SM Entertainment over a 13-year contract, regulators introduced a standard “exclusive contract” — the deal binding an idol's schedule and earnings split to one company — and capped it at seven years.

Fans still call that limit the “seven-year itch,” the point where a group either renews or disbands. Because an agency has a fixed window to earn back its investment, a multi-year trainee commitment only makes sense if the company is confident the recruit can carry a seven-year career.

Two gold medals before he ever auditioned to sing

THEBLACKLABEL's confidence in Tarzzan didn't come from a singing audition. It came from a competitive dance record most idols never build.

Born Lee Chae-won in 2002, he trained in contemporary dance at Busan Art High School and later at the Korea National University of Arts. He became the first Korean male dancer to win gold at consecutive Dong-A International Contemporary Dance Competitions, in 2019 and 2020.

• Gold, 49th and 50th Dong-A International Contemporary Dance Competition (2019, 2020)
• Men's Grand Prix, Tanzolymp Asia International (2021)
• Modeling debut, 2022 Seoul Fashion Week

The cameos that put him in front of the right cameras

Before ALLDAY PROJECT, Tarzzan already had a foothold in the industry most trainees spend years chasing: modeling work for YGK PLUS and dancer appearances in two closely watched music videos, (G)I-DLE's “I Do” (2023) and NewJeans' “Supernatural” (2024).

Those credits functioned as an informal audition. A choreographer or casting director scouting dancers for a major K-pop shoot is, in effect, drawing from a talent pool that overlaps with — but runs parallel to — the standard trainee pipeline.

A debut with no hardship origin story

K-pop marketing usually leans on a trainee's years of sacrifice as part of the pitch: dorm life, elimination rounds, a hardship-before-debut arc that gives fans something to root for from day one. Tarzzan's introduction skipped that arc almost entirely.

He was introduced as someone who already had gold medals, ad campaigns and viral music video cameos — not someone who needed years of in-house development to get there. That is part of why the modeling photos read as a discovery to fans: the backstory had been public the whole time, it just was never packaged as an idol origin story.

A five-member group built to skip the pipeline entirely

Tarzzan wasn't the only member cast this way. THEBLACKLABEL, run by BLACKPINK producer Teddy Park, described ALLDAY PROJECT as “a special collaboration of five unparalleled artists” rather than a class of trainees who trained and graduated together.

Bailey arrived as an established choreographer who had already worked on aespa's “Savage” and Red Velvet's “Psycho.” Woochan had trained under HYBE's Trainee A project and competed on the rap survival show “Show Me the Money” before joining.

Youngseo had trained at SM Entertainment and Source Music and reached the pre-debut lineup of ILLIT before parting ways with that group. Annie built a modeling and influencer career while at Columbia University.

Each member arrived with a public track record instead of, or in addition to, an in-house one — which is part of why a producer already known for hits could afford to cast on résumé rather than run a full training cycle first.

Why a co-ed lineup made this casting logic possible

ALLDAY PROJECT is also a mixed-gender group, a format that has nearly vanished from mainstream K-pop. Critic Lim Hee-yun has noted that coed groups thrived during the broadcast-TV era of the 1990s but faded as the industry shifted toward social-media content built around single idols.

Before ALLDAY PROJECT's debut, only two coed acts were still active in the mainstream: Koyote, which debuted in 1998, and KARD, launched in 2017. Because the group was never trying to fit the standard idol-group mold, casting a member with no trainee history was a smaller leap than it would be for a conventional group.

What his path doesn't answer

Tarzzan's case shows that a public dance and modeling résumé can substitute for the trainee system at one agency, for one specific group's concept. It doesn't show that the trainee system itself is changing.

THEBLACKLABEL hasn't said whether it plans to cast future groups the same way, and no other major agency has announced a similar approach. Tarzzan released his solo single “Medusa” on January 12, 2026, but whether his route becomes a template or stays a one-off is still open.

For dancers and models who once assumed K-pop debuts were closed to anyone without a trainee contract, Tarzzan's case is at least proof that one route in exists without ever signing one — even if it still depends on one producer, one concept and one very specific résumé.

Standard idol path vs. Tarzzan's path

Frequently asked

Did Tarzzan from ALLDAY PROJECT train as a K-pop idol?

No — he signed with THEBLACKLABEL without a trainee contract and debuted about two weeks after being announced as a member.

How long do K-pop trainees usually train before debut?

Data from the Korea Creative Content Agency puts the average at two to four years, with about a quarter training five years or longer.

Why is Tarzzan called Tarzzan?

The nickname started after he performed in minimal clothing — bottoms only — at the 2022 Berlin International Dance Competition, and THEBLACKLABEL kept it as his stage name.