I’ve always enjoyed training for dance competitions. Even if the outcome isn’t fantastic, even if I don’t make the break rounds, even if I flop, I still enjoy the training nevertheless. That has always been the best part of the competitions for me. The medals and trophies attained are just an added bonus. For the MODF, we had practice 3 times a week. Now my nights are free and I get to sleep early, but I’m feeling lost instead…

Well, on the bright side, I met up with three different friends for breakfast/dinner/lunch over 2 days. My social life seems to be on the rise. Hahaha.

Just to fill up space, here’s my bragging rights:

My trophies from the Malaysian Open Dance Fest 2009

That’s my trophy for modern jazz individual (2nd), trophy for line dance individual (3rd), and medals for team events (3rd). I’m short of a medal for one team event, because there was a mix-up during the prize presentation, which the organisers haven’t fixed to date.

Here are the photos Pei Ru took during the night of the finals at Shangri-la.

In other news, I dropped my watch! My favourite watch!!! *sobsob* This watch was given to me by my website clients – a very sweet couple who thought of me when they saw this watch. Notice the brand of the watch in the photo below?? Best watch I’ve ever had! No one has ever had a watch with a brand in their name… mind you it’s not custom-made!

I dropped it as I was taking it out of my bag to put it on, and it fell straight onto the floor with a resounding crack. The impact not only caused cracks to appear on the glass front, but some of the diamantes were severely broken too :(:(:( Fortunately it’s still running though.

I dropped my watch! Notice the cracks on the glass front??

So I had to dig out one of my other watches to get the battery changed at a watch shop in One Utama. While the battery was being changed, I showed this watch to the sales assistant and asked if the glass face could be replaced. Admittedly, this isn’t a famous brand and obviously the shop I went to doesn’t carry the brand. The lady just handed it back to me and said, “It’s not worth it to change. Some of the ‘diamonds’ have already dropped off.”

I couldn’t believe how snooty she was. I mean, this watch is important to me for personal reasons, and it’s not some RM20-piece-of-junk picked up from some night market. So I just paid for the battery change and went off. I was actually contemplating buying a new good watch from the shop since they were having a sale, but her attitude completely put me off.

I’ll just have to go look for another watch shop to get it fixed then; probably a family-owned watch shop, if they still exist. Going to watch shop chains are of no use; some shops are so snooty, they won’t change the battery of a watch if they don’t carry the brand. At least if a shop is run by a family, they’re nicer and more willing to do what the customer asks.

Anyway, while I was in Midvalley today, I saw a Swatch roadshow and went to poke around. I asked a sales assistant to show me their waterproof watches (almost all of them are) because I have always wanted to get one for a long time, especially one that I can go swimming with. (Sometimes when I swim at the pool in school, I lose track of time. It would be good to have a watch so that I can check on the time.) She helped me pick out a really pretty and trendy white watch.

My brand new Swatch watch!

Yeeha!!! I haven’t had a watch with a rubber strap for a long time. Come to think of it, I haven’t bought myself a watch for a long time. Some of my watches were either free gifts with items bought, or given to me by friends. My watches in the past few years have all been either metal straps or leather straps. So yay!!! Now I’ve got one I can wear even when I’m exercising or dancing.

And… this is my first Swatch in my entire life!!! Hahaha!!! When I was in school, I’ve always wanted a Swatch because all my friends seemed to have them, but they were pretty expensive and I never worked up the courage to ask my parents to get me one. And I didn’t save for one either, because I felt that it was really too expensive, and I could easily get a working watch for less than half the lowest price of a Swatch. So this is like a childhood wish that’s been finally fulfilled. The only thing missing now is the rubber watchface guard that was the rage back in school.

I consider this my belated birthday present to myself, and my reward for my achievements at the MODF

Actually I spotted another Swatch watch that I also really liked; it has a metal strap with crystals in the them. But I can’t afford to buy too many watches And I’ve still got to fix the glass on my Zyenn watch.

Pretty good week so far, in spite of the cracked watch. And to top it off, it’s the second three-day weekend in a row! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

Initially I was supposed to go over and spend the day there, helping out my coach Bronya (who is the emcee) and basically, to kepoh because I wanted to watch a few people I know compete in the events. Unfortunately – or actually, FORTUNATELY, because I made it into the Line Dance Individual Crystal finals, I knew I could not do so because I had to conserve my energy for the finals. I wasted a whole day today just to get onto the dance floor for two minutes tonight. I wasn’t going to run around doing unnecessary things especially when I wasn’t needed, and tire myself out and blow my chances for a good placing in the finals. The initial plan was made, because honestly… I had not been expecting to get into the finals.

At any rate, personally, I would have preferred it if they just completed all the line dance finals yesterday; but the organisers had their own reasons to put the finals at Shangri-la tonight.

Anyway, so I wasted the whole day today by waking up late, and taking a mid-morning nap, before finally making myself get ready for the competition. I-Vee came to pick me up, and we went to pick Pei Ru up, and then we headed to Shangri-la.

I-Vee herself had also made it into the Crystal finals (same as me), and Pei Ru was coming along to support and help us. Pei Ru helped me with my hair, and also helped I-Vee out with her make-up.

I admit that I was extremely nervous about the finals. I tried to keep moving before going onto the floor, but I was still feeling so cold, especially since I was wearing a short skirt, and I was showing off my midriff.  (Sorry no photos yet, I didn’t bring my camera – have to wait for photos from Pei Ru!) Amanda Leou (the official photographer’s daughter, who is also one of the photographers for the night) told me I looked so moody. It must have been nerves.

Well I gave it my all on the floor, and all I could do was hope it was enough. I did kind of miss my wall for 2 counts, but I caught it back very quickly. Thank goodness there were no variations!!

After that, I was hanging around outside waiting for the results. I thought that the prize presentation was going to be quite early, but we were kept waiting for a while. Our event started about 7.30pm, but by 9.30pm we were still waiting (and dying of hunger). We line dancers did enjoy ourselves for a very brief period, when we went onto the floor during the country march past and did little dance steps instead of just walking around the floor.

In fact, the prize presentation was supposed to be held outside in the foyer so that the ballroom competition would not be interrupted, but for some reason they suddenly changed their minds, and decided to interrupt the competition after all, and have the prize presentation in the hall. When I heard that, I began to fret a little… I didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of everyone if I got last.

Actually, to tell you the truth, I really wanted to get into the top six (6 is usually the cut-off for the number of finalists, but this time there were 10). But somehow I wasn’t very confident with the way I danced, so all I kept thinking while waiting for the prize presentation was, “I DON’T WANT TO GET LAST.”

Well, I didn’t get last. Or second last. Actually, I kept trying to keep count while the results were announced. Since all ten finalists would be placed, Bronya did announce the placings (“in tenth place… in ninth place…” etc) but I’d keep counting the people who have already been called and were standing by the podium for the photo, just to be sure. I kept losing count because I was so nervous, even while just waiting for the results. I was always expecting my number to be called anytime; I was kind of holding my breath every time a number was announced.

By the time the seventh placed dancer was announced, I was relieved, because that means I did manage to get into top six.

By the time the fourth placed dancer was announced, I was in disbelief.

I could not believe that I got into the top three!!! In fact, by then I knew I got 3rd place – and I was already very happy! I was skipping to get my trophy when my number was finally called. I was not foolish enough to expect any higher because the dancers who got top 2 were very good. I’ve known them for a few years now, and they’re very good dancers, and they have very strong ballroom technique.

It’s been so long since I’ve managed to a podium finish in events with more than 3 contestants… I probably had a bigger smile than the top 2 winners combined!

I know that I’m still not that good, and still have so much to work on… but it’s so great to be top 3 for a change, and to beat so many people!

In related good news, I-Vee got 8th place! So proud of her. She’s come such a long way. She has shown remarkable improvement even from the competition last month, where she had been extremely disappointed in herself for not doing well at all. This time, she managed not only to get into the finals, but to even beat 2 other people. Congrats, I-Vee!

Thanks, everyone for your good luck wishes – I’m sure they really helped me during the competition yesterday as well as tonight! Also, thanks to Pei Ru for helping me out with my hair and my number tags and stuff. And to I-Vee for the effort in fixing up the bling on our shoes and costumes. And to those who came to support us yesterday. But most of all, thank you, Bronya for your patience and for the yelling and for the drilling. There’s no way I could have gotten this far without your constant support and forthright criticism.

Thank you to the organisers of the Malaysian Open Dance Fest for successfully organising a great competition! Looking forward to next year!

I myself took part in quite a number of events – 3 team events (line dance team open, line dance team crystal, modern jazz team open) and 2 individual events (line dance individual crystal, modern jazz individual open).

The team had been training hard for the past month or so, trying our best to get our routine right and to be synchronised. Unfortunately, today, we didn’t do as well as we would like to – we came out only 3rd in all our events. I know that sounds pretty good, but not when you hear how many teams actually took part in the respective events. I shall let you guess.

We were disappointed not in the results, but in ourselves. Still, it was a learning experience for us all. I’m glad to say that every individual in this team did put in a lot of effort, and we haven’t been working together long enough as a team; so hopefully in the future, with enough consistent practices, we’ll make ourselves a better team.

As for the individual events… well, to tell the truth individual events have always been frustrating for me because I can’t seem to get into the finals, even when my friends say I deserve to get in. Either that, or something will go severely wrong (not my fault) and I’d get booted to last place. I’ve practically forgotten what it’s like to be able to stand on the podium, with more than 3 people competing in the event.

So anyway, I MADE IT INTO THE INDIVIDUAL CRYSTAL FINALS!!! Yeahhh!!!

The finals are tomorrow night. I hope I’ll have some rather good news to report tomorrow.

As for the modern jazz individual open… I GOT SECOND!

OK, so there’s only 4 people competing. I know that doesn’t sound tough, but it is – you try it and see!

I was actually worried that I was going to get last, because the judges weren’t looking at me. I was quite sad, you know. There I was, smiling and pumping out all I had, but none of the judges seemed to be looking at me. In fact, one of them even walked around me to take a look at another contestant. :’(

After I got off the floor, Pei Ru said that I’m definitely in top two. Another friend, Joanne Ng, said that I should win (1st), and coming from her, it means a lot because she’s got a very critical eye.

But I was already convinced that I was going to get 4th (how’d you like it if judges walked around you to look at others???), so I tried not to get my hopes up.

And when we were waiting on the floor for the prize presentation… I had a few false starts. OK, they’re not really false starts. But you see, my tag number is 17. And when the emcee (who is Bronya, by the way) announced 4th place: “seven–” I was going to step forward, until she completed her number: “-ty-five”.

And then it would register in my head: “Oh! That’s not me!”

And then in 3rd place, it was “seven–” and I was going to step forward again, until it came out as “-ty-one”.

For the first time, I was actually able to hug the other remaining contestant as we wait for the results. (The other times I got high placings in line dance competitions, finalists weren’t placed on the floor like in latin competitions, we usually just run in from the audience back then).

I’m happy with second place. First place would have been nice, but it’s too much pressure to try to defend it in the future. I honestly know that I still have so much to work on in my dancing, so having the gold elude me is great motivation.  I know to some people, this may sound somewhat like sour grapes, but it truly isn’t. Besides, I don’t want people to start expecting me to dance like a superstar, and then see my dancing and go, “Haaa?? Like that also can win first place ahh?”

Anyway, I felt the first placed winner did deserve the win. I didn’t see her dance, but I saw her practising during her warmup, and she was super-flexible and rhythmic. And she’s really friendly and nice too

Tomorrow night will be tougher though. There are 10 finalists for the individual crystal. *sweat* I just hope I won’t get last.

Oh, by the way, there are no photos because… Pei Ru tried to take photos of me on the podium with my Olympus BUT SOMEHOW THEY ALL CAME OUT BLUR. Dammittttt!!!!!

The first weekend of May, I was up in Penang for a dance competition. There were three dance disciplines in the competition: latin, belly dance, and hiphop. Initially I wanted to bring a hiphop team in for the fun of it… but then after a few practices, my team members decided to pull out for personal reasons. Anyway, we’re not hiphoppers. We’d probably have died on the floor; the other teams were very good.

I took part in the Latin Ladies’ event with Bronya. Actually it took me a while to make a decision on whether we should enter the competition or not. I was actually scared of taking part, mainly because I felt the pressure to do well. Bronya has more than twenty years’ experience of dancing. Me? I only took latin lessons these past two months… and I totally suck at it. Haha. Learning latin made me feel that the past 5 years of doing line dance and freestyle dance was all for nought.

Anyway, we also signed up for Latin Novice under the organiser’s encouragement. The skill levels (Beginner, Novice, Pre-Amateur, Amateur, Professional) are usually reserved for man/lady couples only. Latin Ladies is a unique event which only lady/lady couples participate; this event was created as many ladies found it difficult to get a male partner to dance with (like Bronya and myself).

Because we signed up for two events, I pulled out of belly dance which I signed up for also purely for fun. I wanted to conserve energy for the latin events.

Well… the novice event had A LOT of couples, so much so that the preliminary rounds had to have 2 heats! And guess what, Bronya and I made it to the quarter-finals!! But there was no joy in this triumph. We were not the only ladies-only couple to participate in the Novice; some even had gone as high as Pre-Amateur, and many ladies-only couples managed to get through to the next round. And it was only AFTER the preliminaries that after some complaints, the organiser was forced to announce the disqualification of all ladies-only couples from the non-ladies events. So we didn’t even get to fight in the quarter-finals, even though our number was called.

As for the Latin Ladies… well, we made it to the finals!!!

And we got fourth!!!

Which is not bad for me, being a first-timer!!!

Yay, me. Pats self on back

OK, we don’t have any photos. That’s because we had no supporters accompanying us up there. Not that I wanted any, I was already under pressure as it is, although most of it was self-induced pressure.

And here’s proof: http://www.williamluisa.net/v2/pages/posts/1st-national-ymcas-international-ballroom-hip-hop-belly-dance-competition-pulau-pinang-2009166.php

William is our latin dance trainer and he’s fantastic. If William and Luisa look familiar to you, that’s because they were among the trainers on Malaysia’s So You Think You Can Dance

I’m pretty sure that the workshop attendees must have thought me unsociable, because I sat in one corner fiddling with my laptop instead of mingling with the crowd. But then, the 2-hour drive was only enough for me to cut one medley, and I was supposed to do three! So I worked on the other two as the workshop was in progress. Fortunately I-Vee was with us, and she helped me take a video of the entire workshop. From time to time, I managed to take a few shots of Chief Guru with my DSLR though.

…. which goes to show how last-minute our performances were planned. We did have a rehearsal between the workshop and dinner, but that was obviously not enough

I performed with Bronya in two of the medleys (a funky mix, and a cuban mix) while she performed solo for one (smooth). Erm. We did pretty well in spite of the last-minute cuts, if I do say so ourselves. OK, maybe she won’t agree with me, because I messed up some of the beats. But the crowd did respond to me, and to her, when we played with the crowd. So I guess they enjoyed our performances in spite of our mistakes. Hahaha!!!

No, I’m not putting up the videos. The performance was probably only fun to watch live. If you want to watch it, well… you should have been there!

The next morning Bron had 2 private classes, so we had breakfast together before she went off. My right wrist felt stiff, and I thought I slept on it wrong. It was only much later that I realised it was a slight injury from last night. What happened was this: we didn’t have a changing room so we were given the stage (with curtains drawn) to change behind. The actual performance was on the floor in front of the stage, where the dinner tables were arranged around. As I was walking down the short flight of stairs from the stage, I slipped and grabbed the railing to stop myself from falling. I hit my thumb, so there’s a small bruise on it, but I thought that was it. I didn’t realise then that I’d probably sprained my wrist as well.

Anyway, so when we left the hotel, we were in a bit of a hurry to leave as we supposed to meet some ladies for lunch. Bron had come back to the hotel to shower after her private classes. I had like, 3 million things to carry… as usual. I had all my videocamera/camera gear, my make-up, my clothes bag, etc etc etc…

AND I LEFT MY CAMERA BAG BEHIND. WHICH HAD MY VIDEOCAMERA, MY DSLR CAMERA, 2 LENSES, FLASH AND MY WATERPROOF CAMERA.

Trust me, I screamed louder than you did.

I couldn’t believe it. I only realised it when I had reached home, unpacked everything, and switched on my computer to convert the videos, and suddenly went, “Eh? Where’s my camera bag?”

I was in total shock. I thought that I left it in I-Vee’s car initially, but my memory was very clear on that one. I could picture her car boot in my mind’s eye – what it looked like after unloading all my many, many things, and I knew it wasn’t there. And then it hit me. I knew exactly where it was in the hotel room, and I remembered that I was carrying many bags, but I had not carried it out of the room when we checked out.

I had never left anything before in a hotel room, and it’s horrifying to leave something so expensive and precious behind!

And here, I was lucky. I normally wouldn’t have the phone number of the hotel we stay in that has arranged by someone else, but today I did. I-Vee had gone downstairs first to check out, while Bronya and I had struggled out with our many bags (she herself had many bags too). I pocketed the hotel keycard which was left in the room slot (to trigger the electricity) and didn’t return it to the reception because I was carrying too many bags. And it had the hotel’s address and phone number on it.

So I quickly dialed the number and spoke to a hotel staff (who seemed to be rather *blur*) and made him check with the cleaning staff for me. And yes, it was there.

THANK GOD!!!

(Which brings another issue to mind as to why they didn’t call me to tell me about my bag. You see, I’ve labeled my bag AND cameras with my name and phone number. But that’s another issue altogether)

I called the workshop organiser, Helen Fan, who was the one who also arranged the hotel for us, and asked her to pick it up for me. Fortunately she’s coming to KL tomorrow, and I can meet her then to take my bag from her.

Actually, if Helen wasn’t able to pick it up, I was prepared to drive all the way back there myself just to get it!!

Yes, I know I’m lucky. And I’m every bit grateful for that. I had once also left a cheque book behind at a cheque deposit machine in a bank on a Sunday. And when I went back, it was GONE… but someone saw me looking for it, and his friend was the one who kept the cheque book with the honest intention of giving it to the bank. I cannot say how lucky I was. It was perfect timing as well… that the guy happened to be at the machines when I returned to look for the cheque book. If he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have seen me hunting, and wouldn’t have told his friend to pass the book back to me.

I know I was such a fool to have made such a horrible mistake, and I cannot say enough how lucky I am. Oh, and because I don’t have the photos, I can’t put anything up with this post yet…

So now I’m waiting for the bag, and I hope everything’s still inside. My wrist is stiff, but it will recover. And I’ve just had a cup of Milo, which, to quote I-Vee, has made me “warm, comfortable, and contented”.

Tuesday : I went for Bronya’s Freestyle-in-Line CD1 class (yes, I’m starting from beginner again!!!) after school from 5 to 6.30pm. We’ve finished learning her choreography to Lady Marmalade. Then I went for the swing dance session at Aliyaa from 8pm-11+pm.

Erm. Nearly died on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening, I could barely concentrate on teaching my class. Hahaha.

Wednesday: Was supposed to go for salsa at Aliyaa with my sister, but at the last minute she decided against it because she said she had work the next day. Sigh! I already made Adam promise to go there, so I went alone. But first I joined Bronya’s line dance class until 10pm, before going over to Aliyaa to check out the salsa scene. Was there till just before midnight.

Thursday: Had dance classes in the morning with Bronya again. Joined her Freestyle-in-line CD3 and CD4. Good God, having slept late the night before, I had to force myself to wake up early. Actually when I woke up early, I felt fine. But as the morning wore on, I got sleepier and sleepier

Thursday night saw me at Shall We Dance studio for a swing dance workshop and practice session, again until 11+pm!

Friday: Salsa night! Was at the Salsa Cruise Asia event at Salsa Havana, Federal Hotel with my sister and Adam. I must say that the bartenders were terrible. We ordered 3 drinks, and were supposed to get 3 drinks free. Adam ordered a lime juice, I ordered a virgin lemonade, and my sister ordered a Mojito. Our free drinks could only be alcoholic, but Adam couldn’t take alcohol, so we ordered 2 more Mojitos (for my sister) and I ordered a rum and coke.

The bartender took forever to prepare our drinks, and although I kept going there to ask for our drinks, he kept telling me to wait. I finally got so fed up and a waitress saw me, and she kinda scolded the bartender. And it turns out he ONLY prepared the Mojitos, because it was the common drink of the night. He took a while to prepare the rum and coke, and the virgin lemonade, and promised to send the last drink over later.

Well when we finished all the other 5 drinks, the drink still wasn’t ready. I went over at least 3 times, and each time he asks for “2 minutes”… “5 minutes”… in the end i just stood there and waited because otherwise I’d be a year older and it still wouldn’t arrive. And when he mixed up the drink, it wasn’t even what I ordered. I don’t know what it was (I’m not a fan of alcohol or cocktails) but it was definitely an alcoholic cocktail.

We were so disappointed about the whole thing that we decided to go to Little Havana. Sorry, Tim. Would have liked to stay but we were there for the dancing which didn’t start even though it was already 11pm. (Everyone was initially just standing around even though there was music, and then there were games)

Little Havana had a bit more dancing which was good.

Saturday: I slept the whole day and yet I was still tired by night. Saturday night was Havana Estudio’s studio party. And when I got there, I am shocked to say this, but… I was tired of dancing. I did enjoy the few rounds of salsa I had. But I can’t believe I’m already getting tired of salsa.

OK, I’m not a very good salsa dancer. Largely because I never took lessons. This salsa party is only my 4th salsa night (in two weeks!), and so far I’ve just been picking up steps on the floor, mostly by Adam who goes for lessons. Good thing is I’m able to follow most of the leads, and whatever I don’t know, I… bluff my way through. Convincingly. Some people don’t even believe that I never took classes. Hahahahahahaha!!! But after a while I guess I’m tired of doing the same steps again and again, even though I’m dancing with different male leads. I think this is largely due to (1) my being a level zero (not even beginner!!!) so they don’t try steps that are too advanced with me, and (2) they all learn from the same teachers (Sam & Aisha at Havana Estudio) so they all know the same steps.

Perhaps I ought to take lessons. That might challenge me and make me improve and maybe make me like salsa a bit more.

On the other hand, I’m kinda picking up salsa on the floor so rather reluctant to pay for classes. Yes yes I’m a cheapskate but can’t afford that many dance classes on my poor pitiful teacher’s salary, OK.

And one thing I observed. In open social parties like at Little Havana, guys are more willing to dance with girls that they don’t know, whether or not the girls are good dancers. But at the studio party, well, the guys tend to just ask the girls they do know, especially their classmates. Me being an outsider meant that I didn’t get to dance much. Which was fine because I was “a bit sick of salsa” anyway. But the studio party showed me how clique-ish people could get. I guess it’s because they only want to dance with good dancers or people who know the steps. I don’t know why. To show off to their other classmates? To show off to their teachers?

Ooh one thing to add. During the dance, when we were supposed to do “shines”, I don’t know any of the shines that everyone else learnt, so I usually make up my own stuff. Hahaha. Interestingly a few people said, “I noticed your hiphop moves!” Erm. I never thought they were hiphop moves. I don’t even hiphop. I’d call them “freestyling attempt at salsa to cover up the fact I don’t know how to do shines”. Hahahahahaha!!!

If I’m gonna continue salsa, I’d probably just stick to the open socials for now.

I must say. I’m looking forward to my morning freestyle class on Sunday. At least it’s different from swing or salsa!!!

I didn’t want to upload the videos of the other performances as it wouldn’t be nice to do so without their permission; but here’s the video of OUR performance. Bronya was invited to do a performance on her own actually, but she included the rest of us as a team performance was always more exciting to watch than a solo, usually; plus the rest of us loved performing so we didn’t hesitate to say yes!

The performers are Bronya, Mei Ling, Peggy, Tracy (not the same Tracy as the one who performed with Wendy) and myself. I-Vee recorded the performance, and the front bit got cut off, but she only missed the first 3 seconds. Enjoy!!!

It’s taken from the back but you can still see our moves. Bear in mind that this is the first time we’re competing together. And it’s line dance. So don’t expect something out of So You Think You Can Dance!

And it all culminated to this… it was over on Saturday.

Yes, yes, I know the opening sounds dramatic. Had to get your attention mah.

I haven’t competed in a line dance team competition in ages. I have been actively joining individual competitions, but my last team competition was two years ago, and that wasn’t even line dance. So when I found out about a line dance team competition in Malacca which was open to all teams from Malaysia, I asked a few of my dance friends if they would like to participate.

The first two I asked had to turn me down because they had other personal commitments, but the next two I asked were very interested. Unfortunately, we were still two short because the competition required a minimum of 5 in a team to participate. We managed to get one more, and it was by a breath’s width from the entry deadline that we found our final team member.

Finding the team members was the easy part. The hard part is coming together.

I must say, I honestly could not have asked for a better team. While it was true that all five of us were of different skill levels, what made it work was that every single one of us was committed and dedicated, and not a single person complained. Perhaps it was the novelty of being in a team. Some of us would be tired especially since the practices were at night (after work/classes), but when something needed to be done, we would all just suck it in and keep working at it until we got it right.

I did most of the choreography and styling, but I had plenty of creative input from the girls. Florence, who also has a lot of experience being in a team and has a little jazz dance background, threw in some good variations and steps. She was also the one who came up with the team name.

Bronya saw us twice before the competition; once when we just got together where not much was done, and she expressed her displeasure, hence all those nights I pushed around 5 little chess pieces just to figure out formations (my friends on Facebook will testify to all my weird status messages for those 2 weeks), and on the weekend just before the competition. She didn’t say much – she wanted the team to present what was completely our own – although she gave us very sound advice which we incorporated to make the routine better.

We were aware however, that we needed to get used to large open spaces, so the last two practices saw us on a basketball court in the middle of a housing estate, amidst amused children, teenagers and adults. At 10pm at night.

Day of competition arrives. 6th December 2008.

We traveled to Malacca together in a three-car convoy, reaching the venue in time for the 2pm rehearsals. The space was huge – it was a hall in a chinese school, and when we tried the floor, we struggled with the space distribution. And so we practised outside the hall, and just kept trying to get our formations right.

We then went back to the hotel to get ready – shower, make-up, hair.

We were supposed to get back to the venue by 6.30pm, but in true Malaysian style we got there a little after 7pm. Fortunately, in even truer Malaysian style, the competition would only start at 8pm.

We were just settling into our table when I opened my bag and found – horror of horrors, I had left the team tag number in the hotel!!!

Only Bronya and I-Vee had driven from the hotel (the other car was Flo’s husband), and Bronya was busy at the adjudicator’s table. I saw I-Vee (one of our dearest friends and supporters) walking towards the exit (I didn’t know for what) but? I ran up to her and grabbed her arm, asking if she could send me back to the hotel to get the tag. Without blinking an eyelid, she agreed. As she went to get her keys, I stared at the slow-moving traffic outside the school, and then I suggested I ran back (the hotel was not very far) to which she told me not to be silly and insisted on driving me there.

We managed to get back in time for the competitor’s parade. Thank you, I-Vee, I love you!

We were the third team to go on the floor. Nervous as hell, yeah, but watching the video afterwards, it was the best we had ever danced together. I was so thankful for that – some teams screw up on the actual day, but not ours! No matter what the results turn out to be, we had done our best. We could not ask for more than that.

It was great to have gone on third. We were so relaxed after that, eating dinner, and even joining the general dancing. The competition had fourteen entries, and they had split the competition into two parts – 7 in the first half and 7 in the second half, with general dancing in between giving the competition a break. Had we been in the second half, we’d have been nervous and we could not have enjoyed ourselves; and in fact would have been hungry, as I would not have let the team go on the floor with a full stomach.

When it came to the results announcement, I was surprised to find out that consolation prizes were given out as well. I thought only the top 3 would get prizes.

They first announced the winners for the Malacca Closed tournament (for teams from Malacca only) – 4 finalists and the top 3, before they got to the Malacca Open tournament (all fourteen teams fought in this category) – 3 finalists and the top 3. Mr Leong who is the president of the Malacca Line Dance Association (MLDA) who organised the competition and who was also announcing the results, said that the finalists were announced in no particular order and that all the finalists received the same cash prize.

I’d already suspected that we wouldn’t get top 3 because after the competition, two teams were recalled to do a dance-off because they both tied for second place; and we were not one of those two. And I was not vain enough to think we could get champion, because there was another team which was very energetic and skilled, and I suspected they would be the champions.

So when they announced the finalists, I listened for our name, and when they came to the last finalist, I prayed it was our team – and it was!! We each received a medal and the team got a cash prize.

And I was right about the champion team.

Nevertheless, I think it’s awesome that for a first-time team, we managed to get a consolation prize. In fact, Bronya who was the chief judge, came over to tell us later that we were actually ranked a very close fourth – the marks difference between us and the 3rd team was very very small.

[Note: Lest you all think there was favouritism, let me be the first to say that Bronya is the fairest judge I know and she can even be harder on us whom she knows And the teams that got 1st and 3rd place were trained by one of the other judges. But that doesn't mean they deserved it any less. They were excellent teams who deserved their medals]

So although we didn’t get top 3, I was actually quite pleased with the results and wasn’t disappointed at all. The team is after all still very new, and while we work together, we’re not in sync with each other yet. Now all we need to do is just keep working together until we’re in sync and good

Video will be posted up once I’ve converted it. In the meantime, take a look at my photo album. There aren’t any action photos of us competing because everyone was taking videos of us. Will post more links to the other albums once the others have uploaded their own.

Force5 with medals and prize. From left: Rachel, Florence, me, Pei Ru, Kit. Click on photo or go here to view photo album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49224&l=8bb58&id=576974010

Force5 with Bronya and our supporters: I-Vee, Choi Fung (Kit's mom) and Mei Ling

Here’s her choreography in action:

Yeah, yeah, one of them’s me… Quite honestly I don’t like watching myself dance. I see too many technical errors