I’ve been dancing almost every night since Tuesday. Come Sunday, I’d have danced for 6 days straight. If I danced on Monday, it’d be a full week.

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!!!

Here’s the video of our performance at Jubilation 2008. Jubilation 2008 was a series of line dance workshops organised by Judy Teh, and consists of workshops conducted by many big names in the line dance industry, including Scott Blevins, John & Jo Kinser, Bronya, Wendy Teh, and Vincent & Felicia Chia. There were also several performances, by Wendy Teh and her friend Tracy; a solo by Sae Min; a solo by Philip Sobrielo Gene of Singapore; and Bronya & a bunch of her girls. I was one of the bunch of the girls

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!!!

Finally. I’ve managed to convert and upload the video of my team’s competition piece at the Malacca competition.

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!

The weeks just flew by from the moment we had our complete team. We had never worked together before, but we were certainly going to try.

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

I just learnt a new line dance from my former line dance teacher, Mei Ling. She choreographed it herself! It’s a pretty fun dance. Goodness, I haven’t touched line dance for years. Well.. competition pieces don’t count because I learn them for the comps, not for the fun of it. Hehe.

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