Day 86 - Dance Diary Part 4 - Of Tears and Laughter

My holidays are drawing to an end. This my last week here in Ipoh before my sem 2 in IMU commences. Last week of dancing with you too... T.T

The last lesson with Sifu was totally hilariously fun, to begin with. When she came to fetch us to her studio, she told me she was going to drop something to somewhere halfway. It turned out to be two drawers she wanted to send to a key shop. And it was just two individual drawers taken right out from her cupboard/wardrobe... Doesn't sound right, rite?

The story was that she sent the original drawer keys to the shop, hoping to make a copy of them. When she took back the copies, it didn't work. So she sent it back again, and the second copies didn't work either. She was pretty pissed off then, so she brought along her drawers for them to make another copy that is sure to work this time! (Lolx... at such a thing to happen!)

While the key makers were fussing with the keys, we proceeded to the studio. For our last lesson, we finished up our Samba routine, with more emphasis on techniques this time. Hips motion and most importantly, how to move along the dance floor, in an anti-clockwise direction. We weren't really good about the moving part, our Samba was pretty much stationary, or mebe only moving a little the previous lessons. Thank God at the end of the lesson, we managed to get the hang out of it!!! We could even circle around the studio, repeating the routine at different positions, without messing up our direction of steps.

And we even learnt the classic Samba Roll!!! It wasn't anything for beginners actually, but Sifu decided to teach us that, as a farewell gift maybe? ^__^ That was a move I had wanted to learn for so long, for it always fascinates me how beautifully flowy this move could be if executed well. But yes, you saw that, 'IF EXECUTED WELL'. And frankly we didn't execute it anywhere near well. Looked pretty much like some move out of a puppet dance when we did it, stiff and awkward, and it cracked us up a lot watching ourselves in the mirror. *Now I understand why this move isn't meant for beginners!* Gotta work HARD on this!!! =p


Learnt the techniques of spinning too, under my request. Cuz boy, I suck at spinning, big time. So I had wanted to polish up my spinning techniques. Spent the last 15 minutes or so spinning in each direction and trying to balance myself, trying to spot, trying to look good, trying to spin in a straight line, trying to keep myself from getting dizzy... It was downright hard work for me. And the outcome? I suck less! =p


Before we left the studio, I took some photos with my sifu, it was hard work convincing her to do so, for according to her, she wasn't pretty enough for a photo shot. So after finally convincing her that she looked even prettier than me, she agreed; but still, not after she forced me to remove my dancing shoes. Reason, she didn't want me to look much much taller than her! So I did. But truth is, even barefooted, I am taller than her!!! Nyek nyek... ^_^


After that, Sifu fetched us home while dropping by the shop to get her drawers and keys back. I didn't follow her down but Chin Yaw did, and man, cuz of that I missed out a good show! =p Sifu reaccounted the story to me later when she got back into the car, and it seriously sent me into a laughing fit, though I wasn't supposed to. =p

So for dunno what reason, she was reckoned as a stupid woman by the key-maker, who told her that it wasn't the keys which weren't working, but it was that she used the wrong keys to open the wrong drawers! And for these new copies, they even put sticker labels for her, and explained to her which key was for which drawer as though explaining 123 to a three year old kid. Sifu was pretty pissed off, and replied him curtly that she wasn't that stupid of a woman as he thought, and that she DID try both keys for both drawers. So there was this little arguement I assume, and Sifu and the key-maker mutual blacklisted each other I suppose! But as Sifu is, she wasn't actually pissed off or angry, she was just exasperated and innocently hurt; which made me couldn't help but laugh at her misfortune. *damn bad, I know...*

Neways, I'll forever remember,

我不是那么蠢的一个女人!!!

死鸡撑饭盖？！！

不要污辱我的智慧！！！

Funny quotes from Sifu!!! =p =p =p

And as the day ended, we waved goodbye to Sifu, promising that I'll be back to visit her during CNY. Thank you, Sifu, for all the good times that we had. One day, Sifu, I'll be back again to learn, just as I always did. No I'm still not gonna give up, no matter how hard the journey could be. And hopefully by then, I can be better than I am now, able to soar just the way you wanted me to. ^_^

Till then,
Christine


*******

This might be the final part of my dance diary before it is sent to hibernate mode, for dance doesn't come easy once I am not in Ipoh... sigh...
Sometimes I feel really lazy to write, but I still do. For my writings keep the moments fresh, so that in future, if I ever missed the past, I could always read back on them, and savage in the tears and laughter of those memories. And most important of all, I wanna keep the memories fresh, for I'd loved every single moment with you, you and you... And I just don't wanna forget them, not one bit, even...

Day 76 - Dance Diary Part 3 - Of Samba and Puke?!

Having Latin two days in a row is darn tiring. In preparation for our Genting trip (yay!!!) from tomorrow till Friday, we somehow had to cram all our lessons with Sifu yesterday and today. And on top of that, Ballroom was tonight too. All these were what made my feet throb... even now.

Lesson learnt --- Never arrange Latin and Ballroom classes together on the same day if you are to learn techniques for both... It... KILLS. Both you, your feet and your partner... =p


For Latin, we started off with a new routine on Monday, after polishing up with our Cha Cha. It was Samba. I hadn't really learnt a lot of Samba, so I though this was a good chance to get myself more familiar with this hot Brazilian dance. Started off with some core strength and hips technique training, samba walk, criss-cross volta, bota fogo...

I find Samba a really captivating dance, very special in many ways. Firstly, it moves around the place a lot more than the other latin genres, and Samba is danced in an anti-clockwise manner. Secondly, the ladies are always on the outer circle, and the men in the inner circle. Many a time, the men are to be sort of a 'shadow' to the ladies. Thirdly, Samba needs nicely executed hips and stomach motions to bring out the personality of the dance, which I think is pretty similar to stomach churning.

And the stomach churning thingy din't do good to me as I had a heavy lunch, and after Samba-ing for half an hour or so, I seriously felt waves of nausea in every move I made. Thank God I actually managed to hold it all back and continued dancing for more than an hour, till the end of the lesson. But I looked really green in the face after all that.


Lesson learnt --- Never eat too much before dancing Samba. This is serious advice. You won't wanna puke all over the dancefloor!


Borrowed the latin clothes from Sifu. 4 similar tops, hand-made. They look nice to me, the four different striking colours on the same black base, complete with soft-flowing ruffles. But the tops were bareback, bare-tummy, bare shoulders... pretty bare all in all. I'm worried no one would dare to wear it... T.T Just hope I could gather enough dancers and train them in time for the coming CNY performance in IMU. It's just about three weeks away from now, and so far, Wei Jin and I hadn't had much preparations done yet, mostly due to Summative 1 & then the sem break in the way. But we decided we'd do some simple group Latin instead, so IMU folks, anyone interested?

*******

As for Ballroom, we finally got to proceed in our Waltz, doing whisks and chasses. But still, a lot of practice was required to get a hang out of it all. And did I tell you? I got myself a new pair of ballroom shoes! It was 2-inches heeled, closed-toed, gold, and made of soft materials. I love the glitter gold fire-tongue-like design at the back, giving a slight touch of glamour to the demureness of the shoes. And these shoes were softer than Latin's, so I got away from the night with only a blister near my soles, not bloody cut-lines. ^_^


*******

Packed for Genting and managed to catch episode 5 of SYTYCD Season 6. This season seems better than the previous, and the dancers seems more talented than ever. And most of the talents were much younger too, most of the good ones only just turned 18. Wow. And one thing I notice about auditions, the judges like to put great ballroom or contemporary dancers straight through to Vegas, but they hold back on great hip-hopers or dancers of other genres. Maybe they have doubts on the latter's versatility... I'm not sure.



I guess if I ever entered SYTYCD USA, I won't even get pass audition. Nigel wouldn't even let me dance for more than one minute. And the best thing Mary can say will be: "You're just not strong enough for this competition... I'm sorry. But keep working hard, and thank you for coming...!"



Lesson learnt --- As a dancer, grow in what you do, and try to be more versatile. I realized that I am sadly, not at all a versatile dancer, judging from the hard time I have going through adapting to Ballroom. As Raymond always say, " I DON'T WANT YOUR LATIN STYLE!!! THIS IS BALLROOM, NOT LATIN!!!" These days, I'd come to realize that on this journey, there are still loads I need to improve on. It never fails to amaze me, how there is such a wide horizon to dance, how there are such heights I am yet to explore... so much more.



If this journey has stages, then I'm an infant; new, amazed, excited but afraid. Would I ever be the strong, confident adult I would so wish to be?
I don't know.
But I'll grow.

And we'll see. ^_^



Genting tomorrow! Can't wait,
Christine

Day 74 - Dance Diary Part 2 - Of Heels and Toes

It had been two weeks since I ventured into my new-found dance field, and still, I'm so very unfamiliar with all the mechanisms, or techniques, as we call them. And boy, my pace at picking up Ballroom techniques is ten times slower than Latin, so I ended up still stuck in doing the basics after these whole two weeks. *Sigh... I fail...* T.T


There is one major difference in Latin and Ballroom --- Latin's always on pointe, while Ballroom needs to heel and toe. As a Latin dancer from the start, I admit it's pretty hard to assimilate the heel toe thingy into my steps. Very often, my Latin instinct/muscle memory/nature whatever-you-call-it takes over, and I move forward on pointe instead, earning me more scoldings from my new teacher, Raymond or his partner, Marie.


Raymond is very strict when it comes to dancing, he never hesitates to scold us sternly whenever we did mistakes or were just not up to par on the techniques. He even hits our arms and legs if we were to place them in a wrong position or moved them incorrectly. Harsh training, but I know it was all for our own good. I don't mind it one bit, it really pushed me. And what motivated me more to push myself on even when I was darn tired, even when I made so many mistakes over and over again that I wish to just give up and rest... was what he said at the end of a lesson: " You are one who can dance, that is why I wanted you to do the steps & techniques perfectly. If it's for someone who isn't really a dancer, just steps will do enough for them..."


And so I got up and tried again and again, ignoring the way my Latin shoes were carving bloody lines on my flesh, as I struggle to support myself well "the Ballroom way" in them. Truth is, it isn't advisable at all to dance Ballroom in Latin shoes, as the Latin heels were higher, which means less support as well as difficult rise and fall for Waltz. And the open-toe structure would mean gliding on your toes instead of in your shoes. *No wonder my toes were traumatized at the end of each lesson...sigh*

Note to self: Should get myself a pair of Ballroom shoes asap! (I'm not going to give up on Ballroom, will continue learning it, so yea, Ballroom shoes are essential for me.)

*******

Unlike the stressed, highly driven Ballroom classes, Latin classes were high-spirited and just, full of fun and energy. One thing about Sifu, she's one of the most adorable teacher I had ever met, really bubbly most of the time. And I think the bubbliness is one thing I learnt from her too, aside dancing. Lolx... We could talk about almost everything, and very often, we would send each other laughing all the way on the car to the studio, through lessons, and back home. And as dear Chin Yaw got more familiar around her, it became us three sitting around after class, cooling down in the studio and chatting away.


Well, it might sound like all fun and non-serious learning, but don't get me wrong, it's still a huge amount of learning, plus sweat and blood and a lot of effort. Latin classes were never a breeze, though I find them much more in my comfort zone compared to Ballroom. Over the past 2 weeks, we had got through an intermediate chacha routine, with a split specially choreographed for me, but which I couldn't execute well as I lost my split to Summative 1 in IMU... *long story* Anyway, it was later replaced with some other move. Samba was next, beginner's steps, techniques included. And Samba techniques sure isn't taufu.


Still a lot to work on --- fluidity of executing the routines, interaction with partner, my still-sucky spins, timing, my Cuban Break... and imma determined to regain my split. (Sifu thinks I'm cheating her about doing the 4 splits in cheerleading...grrr...)


I got till next week. Gotta practise my feet off. =p

P/S: Got to visit Sifu's newly-renovated third floor of her studio... (remember the dark-dusty-abandoned-ju-on-hideout-like 3rd floor I mentioned in my previous post? You can check it out HERE...) She cleaned and renovated most of it herself! Unbelievable! So she earned herself another 'title' --- renovation worker, on top of all her previous 'titles' --- dancer, adjudicator, teacher, costume designer, artist, children caretaker, driver... *Simply awesome!*


Gute Nacht,
Christine

Day 67 - Dance Diary Part 1 - Of Latin and Ballroom

Phew, a week had passed since I left IMU to indulge in this wonderful holiday... *hmmm*

A weekful of yummy Ipoh food! (Fattening, but ahh, worth it, for food like these! =p)
A weekful of luxurious 10-hours-per-day sleep! (Srsly, I sleep like a pig nowadays)
A weekful of not touching any academic related stuff! (COP included...T.T)

What's more, a weekful of INTENSIVE DANCING!!! As in intensive, I don't mean 24/7, but still for one like me who am dance-deprived for half a year, three times a week IS intensive! And I only mean lessons... (not including the hours of practise at home =p)


Important announcement: I'm taking up BALLROOM for the 1st time in my life this holiday!!! (totally hyped-out....OMG.... *dancing crazily around the room* )

No more just chacha, rumba, samba & jive for me... now there's tango and waltz too!!! More to come I hope! Weeeeee!!!!!!! TANGO!!! Oh my, I had been wanting to dance that for soooooo soooo long!


Thanks to you Chin Yaw for being willing to be my partner!!! Yes, I have a partner!!! (Not permanant since he's leaving to NZ again soon...sob...) but still, God knows how much I appreciate it, you know! Considering that you ain't really into dancing & how a noob I am especially in ballroom! T.T


It tires me out pretty much, the amount of learning & even more, practice; and Ballroom proves to be hard, much harder than I thought... And especially when you have a new teacher who's a perfectionist till the very detailed. Si, I have a new teacher (and his partner too) to teach us Ballroom as Sifu doesn't have that much time to teach me both Latin and Ballroom... (not that much of energy too, considering that I am a pretty difficult student...nyek nyek...)


Anyway, this post is to be continued, as I'm uber tired now & gotta get some rest... (the time below is wrong, fyi... it's AM, not PM) So... ciao for now!

P/S: Details to come! A little insight, it'll be about 'some stories', theories & techniques, my new teacher, and my dear old Sifu!!! (How nice to see her again! I do miss her so...! What's more, she's still prettier than ever!)


Nitey-nitezzzzZZ,
Christine

Day 63 - God sustains

It had been a long day for me. And again, I was in a hospital.


I had never liked the hospital. It always intimidates me. The moment you enter it's vicinity, you'll see gloomy faces, weak frail people, worried-looking family members, grim-faced staff and doctors... all scrruying past, to wherever they are heading. Not a welcoming sight to behold, for sure.


Sometimes, I think hospitals are like battlefields. It is where everyone is fighting. It is where death is nearest. It is where sorrow, fear and tension always hung, like a huge grey cloud above...

And no, I don't like it.

But then again, who does?

It's scary, lying on the cold bed; I know.
It's scary, lying helpless when people prick and prode you with needles and all; I know.
It's scary, sitting on the benches, awaiting medical reports; I know.
It's scary, just wondering what they will do to you next; I know.


But sometimes, life doesn't give you much of a choice, does it? I've known, from when I first went under the knife, at six years old. Tumour in the eye, I was told. Then, I knew what a tumour was at six. Heart murmur, at seven. And all that preceeds--- mitral valve prolapse, ultrasound tests, echocardiograms, electrocardiograms... I remember the cool gel the doctor applied over my chest, and the wand-like thing he ran over my skin. I guess it took a pretty long time for the doctors to come to a diagnosis and treatment plans. A couple of years maybe. For that was how long I had been in and out of hospitals, meeting doctor after doctor.

I remember a doctor mentioning something about a balloon once, angioplasty balloon, to be exact. But at that age, the only balloon I knew was the big colourful ones we used to play with. And for long after that, I had a hard time imagining how a balloon as such could be inserted right up to my heart, through my wrist. But how it was done, I never got to know, for I never got the balloon inserted anyway. Not that I wanted it too.


Truth is, there is nothing much to be done about MVP, it doesn't affect you much, I was told.


Still, illnesses often have a way of reminding you that you are afterall, not completely normal. Such as the large doses of antibiotics you need to take before every dentist visit or surgery. Why mummy would never let you play much sports. Why you could never run as long and fast as the other kids cause you get breathless easily. And why you could never drink coffee for it causes hours of palpitation that could leave your whole chest paralysed...


On top of that all, eczema clung to me, however badly I wanted to shake it off. Anti-histamines, protopic cream... even steroids, I used all through the years. But it kept coming back to me.

And again, all that the doctors say was, there is nothing much to be done about it.


I learnt that when nothing else could do anything to help me, in Him alone, I have my only hope. For everytime my body fails me, I pray to Him, for healing grace. For everytime I recovered, I give thanks to Him, for healing grace. He is the one who is always there for me, to help me live through it all. Never abandoned me as the doctors did. Never abandoned me as I myself did.

He sustains me, all the while.
God sustains me, through it all. :)


With a thankful heart,
Christine

Day 59 - Solamente si tú sabíendo...

"At times,
I feel as though I am something just next to wind.
Sometimes,
I think I am something no more than dust."

My voice,
silenced volition, to the loudness of your pride.
My love,
dimming glow, to the brightness of your light.
My pace,
baby steps, to the speediness of your stride.

How am I ever gonna keep up?

Sometimes,
I feel as though this is like
A masquerade for you, a massacre for me...
I'm dying, over and over again
before your mask of coldness.

How am I ever gonna survive?

And still again, this night,
you haunt my dreams with the air of a master,
And still I am, this day,
waking up with tears streaming,
all from this gaping hole of loss.

Credits: Afaust

How am I gonna mend it?

And it's all about you, all about you...

"en los que tú me decías,
ya juntos toda la vida;
pues para mi, la vida no es vida,
si tú no estás junto a mí..."

If only you knew...
Christine