'I didn't want to label her an ajumma': Lia Kim on 19 years together without marriage

Lia Kim, one of K-pop's leading choreographers and the head of dance creative company 1MILLION, has opened up about her 19-year relationship — and why she and her partner have chosen not to marry.

The EBS documentary series "Sidaemokgyeok," a current-affairs documentary program, aired Sunday and featured Lia Kim's life in dance and her day-to-day life with Yoon Yeo-wook, her longtime partner and co-CEO at 1MILLION.

Much of the episode focused on why the two have stayed together for 19 years without marrying.

Yoon recalled the period when Lia Kim went through a severe slump, saying she "became very anxious as the brilliant days of her early twenties passed and things began to quiet down." He added that this was "one of the reasons we didn't get married."

"I didn't want to stick the 'ajumma' label on her," he said, using the Korean term for a middle-aged married woman. "I wanted her to keep working as a young, beautiful artist for as long as possible."

Rather than rejecting marriage outright, he explained that he did not want the social image that comes with the institution of marriage imposed on Lia Kim as a female artist.

Lia Kim also spoke candidly on the program about the long slump that followed her early success.

"Within five or six years of starting to dance, I had become world No. 1 in both locking and popping," she said. "I was consumed by the thought that I was the best, while at the same time always living in fear that someone would take that top spot away from me."

At a popping battle in China in 2011, Lia Kim lost in the round of 32 to a teenage boy — a defeat the reigning world champion said she struggled to accept.

"My pride was so wounded and I just didn't want to admit the loss," she said. "I wanted to quit dancing and hid away in dark places. I gained a lot of weight, and the slump went on for seven or eight years, right up until I founded 1MILLION."

Fans have rallied behind the couple as Yoon watched Lia Kim's slump from up close, helped her stage a comeback, and remained by her side as 1MILLION grew into what it is today.