zyenhoo dot com

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