Bear with me for this post. I'll be a bit emotional. Just a wee bit I promise.
Just a brief background, I didn't start dancing until I was 17. I was a late starter, and of course I had to catch up in terms of technique and flexibility. Present day, my technique improved but is still far far far away from perfect, and although I can 'technically' do a spilt with right leg extended in front. Gave up on the other two methods, since my I pulled my left hamstring more than a year ago which still hurts when I stretch it.
Anyway throughout my 'dance' journey, I stopped for about a year and a half after junior college before finally going back to dance with NUS Chinese Dance in my year 2 in the university. Then after another year, I became the vice-president of NUS Chinese Dance and I have stepped down since. From then till now, it has been two years, and I'm going into my fourth year into the university and starting my third year in Chinese Dance.
While I was in junior college, I didn't really learn techniques, but was 'trained' to become more flexible. As a result, I injured both my knees because I thought falling is just falling. Only when I came to NUS Chinese Dance did I realise that even for falling, there are ways to fall to prevent injuries. But it was kinda too late, my knees are half-gone. The pain would come back "the next day" if I was careless and put undue pressure on it during any practices thereafter.
When I joined NUS Chinese Dance for my first performance in any one of it's production, it was for "Rhythm of Life VI: Efflorescence" where we invited 7 guest dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy to perform with us. And no, I didn't get to dance with them. But after this performance I didn't want to continue dancing and I felt my knee pains coming back to me (after 1.5 years of rest).
But then I did continue. My second performance in any of NUS Chinese Dance's production is "EMCC 2012: 7 Deadly Sins". I still remember the only reason why I danced for this one was because of (1) the theme which was too interesting for me to resist and (2) because they had a lack of dancers. And somehow I decided to be involved in the EXCO after this concert, which was why I nominated myself to be part of the EXCO and little did I know that they would give me the job of a VP.
And that kinda started my journey to 桃李杯 (Tao Li Cup) in Anhui, China last August where we were awarded the 第三等 (third category award). It was very rewarding since we probably the only non-professional dancers down there. Initially I didn't want to do that, since I wanted to stop dancing after Efflorescence, but since we were really lacking dancers as practices were during the vacation period and I was part of the EXCO, I had to do it. It was a tough journey, but fun and rewarding nevertheless. I actually made it clear to my president that I will not be dancing for our next production (which we intended for it to be a major production) before we even started to plan for it. And I didn't dance for our next production - "NUS Art Festival 2013: Mirror.Moon", but instead was part of the backstage crew.
Mirror.Moon was very grand, and I was happy enough just to be part of the backstage and admin/planning side. Though we had hiccups and sometimes I felt like strangling something, the hard work paid off and it was a success. :)
So anyway. In between Tao Li Cup and Mirror.Moon, my church side was having talks about a concert, and a dance items for concerts. And I got roped in to dance. Initially, I had plans to go overseas to do an internship during the summer vacation, but because of the job scope (which is not very wide and enriching) and the expenses I had to pay (which my parents felt didn't justify the experience I was going to get), I ended up staying in Singapore to do an internship. So I could join the church dance group. What was amazing was more than half of us were also from the vocalist team (me included). By vocalist I meant the 'backup singers' every Sunday singing with the congregation, and not choir (though we were roped in for choir-ing a few times too). For the concert they had an external choir group to perform with us.
So anyway, the journey as part of the church dance was... Amazing yet Agonizing. Amazing because I made new friends and got to know some people whom I already know better. And we got to see each other's talents. :) Agonizing because (1) not only did I suffer knee pains, I felt my left hamstring tensing up every so often and hurting "the next day" and (2) (I decided I should still keep this to myself and a selected few friends).
The dance segment went so smoothly and I had feedback there won't any (obvious) mistakes though usually can see a few mistakes during pracs. Of course the more experienced dancers in the team knew what mistakes we made (timing wise and all), and though I made a mistake during my solo, it was a solo so noone could tell. hehe. All glory be to God for that great performance!
On to photos (somehow I like square photos for the photo diary part):
God bless you all!
But then I did continue. My second performance in any of NUS Chinese Dance's production is "EMCC 2012: 7 Deadly Sins". I still remember the only reason why I danced for this one was because of (1) the theme which was too interesting for me to resist and (2) because they had a lack of dancers. And somehow I decided to be involved in the EXCO after this concert, which was why I nominated myself to be part of the EXCO and little did I know that they would give me the job of a VP.
And that kinda started my journey to 桃李杯 (Tao Li Cup) in Anhui, China last August where we were awarded the 第三等 (third category award). It was very rewarding since we probably the only non-professional dancers down there. Initially I didn't want to do that, since I wanted to stop dancing after Efflorescence, but since we were really lacking dancers as practices were during the vacation period and I was part of the EXCO, I had to do it. It was a tough journey, but fun and rewarding nevertheless. I actually made it clear to my president that I will not be dancing for our next production (which we intended for it to be a major production) before we even started to plan for it. And I didn't dance for our next production - "NUS Art Festival 2013: Mirror.Moon", but instead was part of the backstage crew.
Mirror.Moon was very grand, and I was happy enough just to be part of the backstage and admin/planning side. Though we had hiccups and sometimes I felt like strangling something, the hard work paid off and it was a success. :)
So anyway. In between Tao Li Cup and Mirror.Moon, my church side was having talks about a concert, and a dance items for concerts. And I got roped in to dance. Initially, I had plans to go overseas to do an internship during the summer vacation, but because of the job scope (which is not very wide and enriching) and the expenses I had to pay (which my parents felt didn't justify the experience I was going to get), I ended up staying in Singapore to do an internship. So I could join the church dance group. What was amazing was more than half of us were also from the vocalist team (me included). By vocalist I meant the 'backup singers' every Sunday singing with the congregation, and not choir (though we were roped in for choir-ing a few times too). For the concert they had an external choir group to perform with us.
So anyway, the journey as part of the church dance was... Amazing yet Agonizing. Amazing because I made new friends and got to know some people whom I already know better. And we got to see each other's talents. :) Agonizing because (1) not only did I suffer knee pains, I felt my left hamstring tensing up every so often and hurting "the next day" and (2) (I decided I should still keep this to myself and a selected few friends).
The dance segment went so smoothly and I had feedback there won't any (obvious) mistakes though usually can see a few mistakes during pracs. Of course the more experienced dancers in the team knew what mistakes we made (timing wise and all), and though I made a mistake during my solo, it was a solo so noone could tell. hehe. All glory be to God for that great performance!
On to photos (somehow I like square photos for the photo diary part):
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