Modern Dance SYF 2007
"Life is nothing more than that spent in waiting." I couldn't agree more. All this while, we've been waiting. Waiting for our trainings to start, waiting for our juniors to come to the actualization that SYF is coming soon, waiting for that magical moment to descend upon our dance.
Just where do I even begin? Everything happened so quickly, I feel like I just woke up from a dream. Coming to school on Wednesday had nothing more than the thought that SYF has finally arrived. This is it, the point of no return. All these months of trainings just for this very day. When we got on the bus, it still felt weird. I seriously didn't know how to feel, so as with others, I started reading what the juniors wrote for me in that prettily assembled booklet, and ... I'm seriously VERY VERY touched. I LOVE ALL YOU JUNIORS! For all the heartfelt messages, for all the effort that you put into the dance, for giving it your everything. It was your messages that gave us seniors the final push to give it our all for the dance.
The bulk of the time spent in UCC was nothing more than having this dreadful feeling. Waiting. As we got closer and closer to our turn, there was this feeling of escalating excitement and anxiety. We didn't have any elaborate costumes like the other schools, we didn't have any elaborate make up like the other schools, BUT there was something that distinguished us from the rest of the schools. Other schools were probably busy with putting up appearances that they were not a force to be reckoned with, but who really cares? Seriously. All that mattered to us was that we were dancing together, and that we were going to get in there and give it our all for the dance.
When Dan got us to do our 'HA' together in unison without any cues, you knew straight away this dance was not going to be like any of the practices we had together. Everyone was together in this one movement and locked onto the same goal. I'm glad we did our prayer thing together, it was then that I felt back at peace with myself and with the group again. It was quite an out of this world experience, like how Meiling describes it, zen. Even when the guys were moving props backstage, there was this weird sense of longing to reunite with the girls as one group. Despite all the hiccups that had occurred backstage with the SYF judging committee about the settling of props, returning back to the girls who had been waiting at the corridor was nothing short of a sense of assurance that we were going to go out there and show what we were all about.
We didn't have to wait long before our turn was up. Oh yeah, this was it, this was the dance that was going to move and captivate the audience. I don't care how the audience would react to our dance, or even how the judges viewed our dance. We were going to do it for us, for M.A.D, for our passion for dance.
And so we did.
Never in my life have I felt so much simply through performing one motion. I simply had no consciousness of who I was. (It's a really amazing feeling when your mind blanks out and you have no idea about who you are. It's not amnesia, but more so of the feeling that you had no form of physical presence.) The moment your feet left the ground, you knew without doubt that everyone was on perfect timing. The moment you entered backstage, your heart, mind and soul was still out there on stage with your fellow dancers. And even though you were backstage, you felt the raw emotion of your fellow dancers on stage. I'm totally at a loss for words when it comes to describing how it was. Stunning. Heart Captivating. I could go on forever! Right at the finale when the red umbrella came up, deep inside, you could just sense that everyone was screaming out this insane YES! that filled the silence even when the lights dimmed.
Returning back to the holding area, I guess we were the only school that was drenched in tears! AH! The exhilaration and insanity of it all! I can still feel my heart racing as I'm typing this. We really DID IT! I'm pretty sure everyone is still in disbelief that our SYF has already gone to past! All 38 of us made it happen, and all that mattered was that we poured our souls out in that performance!
Oh yeah, and insane photo-whoring necessarily ensues!
Well, that aside. Even though I've never been part of any SYF before, I'm pretty sure never in history has any school received that much support for their SYF item. I heard that many schools specially stayed back just to watch our item, and even after we finished our item, there were still schools that came up to us to reassure us that our item was very good. I seriously don't know how all this came about, but I'm more than ecstatic that this happened! All the more so that we made their wait for our item worth the while! Not forgetting our NJC and SRJC friends who were there as well!
Night at Fish & Co. had even MORE INSANE photo-whoring, Mr. Dan singing and loads of pictures of faces of Kelvin and our Audrey smiles! It was a great night, never have I felt that relaxed on a weekday! I think we totally forgot we had school the next day! Talking to the juniors and taking photos as a J2 batch together totally completed the evening.
On my way back home with Ezra, we both agreed that it didn't matter anymore on a personal level whether we did get what we set out to achieve because in a way, we already did. M.A.D Modern grew closer as a group, us seniors and juniors connected together on an entirely different level and all of us gave one hell of a performance for SYF. In retrospect, I'm rather surprised how I managed to sleep so soundly after I got back home even though the results were to be announced the very next day!
So the next day came.
The moment I woke up, my mind had the words "Gold with Honours", and then following that were successive chills that ran down my spine and goosebumps! Getting to school was nothing more than waiting for that moment when the clock struck 11 am and when we would gather at the flag posts to find out the results. After biology lecture, I didn't even care to put my bag back at the class bench, I just made a direct dash for the central plaza where everyone was. Everyone stood in this circle and snuggled close together while Clarice called Mr. Dan. I'm sure we all had our little murmurs, utterances and prayers for us to hopefully be able to clinch that Gold with Honours.
Urgh, why did Mr. Dan have to add onto the suspense? Haha, he still wanted us to scream and shout into the phone before he told us. I'm pretty sure any moment then I was probably going to collapse and just faint on the spot if he had dragged it on any longer. Just tell us already!
So deciding that he had had enough fun already, Mr. Dan finally decided to tell Clarice our results. I don't think I'll forget the moment when I heard it come out of Clarice's mouth.
GOLD WITH HONOURS.
6 months of training flashed past just like that. And guess what? WE GOT WHAT WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE! From silver to Gold with Honours, this absolutely meant the world to us and M.A.D! This was no more just a target, because we had achieved it! It was our very own Gold with Honours! And all the more miraculous how everything fell into place just within 1 week after our open rehearsals.
To those who passed hurtful and cynical remarks, here's taking a slap back at your face. What do you mean when you said our dance was cheap? What do you mean when you said our dance was nonsense? If you don't even know what to look out for in a dance, do you have any right at all to even attach labels to our dance? To those who were never part of the performing arts, you'll never understand it means by 台上十分钟，台下十年功. If you're still not convinced, then get a ticket for Dance Night, and see why at the end of the day, we'll still be having the last laugh.
So what if people think that we are attention attracting when we knew our results? So what if people think that we're crazy? So what if people thought we were weird because we could cry and feel for our dance? We don't give a damn. We slogged our hearts and souls for our dance, and if you hadn't been there to witness it, you should just shut your gap and stop blabbering nonsense regarding why we don't deserve that Gold with Honours. And if you haven't even seen it yet, all the more you ought to shut your mouth. If you think you're that good, then go question the judges.
Journey. All of us went through this together, and all of us came out of it changed, in one way or another. It was a journey that was well travelled, and I feel really lucky and blessed that we were able to experience, as what Meiling has said "a fairytale ending" that so many others could only have dream about.
Thank you for accompanying me through this journey, Clarice, Meiling, Liu Qian, Samantha, Priscilla, Kelvin, Nicholas, Ainan, Kun Yu and Yu Xiang. You people absolutely rock as batch mates and fellow dancers. For all your encouragements, for all your wackiness, for all your 'allow-me-to-tag-around'ness, for shouting and screaming like lunatics, you people have made such an impact on me that even years down the road I'm still going to remember you all and for this effort that we put through to bring M.A.D. to even greater heights! There are absolutely no words that can describe how grateful I am towards you people and how much I love you all!
Thank you for accompanying me through this journey, Jia Yee, Han Lin, Nge Hwee, Wei Ting, Jia Ying, Sin Yee, Huitian, Adeline, Meijie, Han Zhi, Audrey, Xian Huan, Evelyn, Si Ying, Jia Yuan, Heather, Sharon, Jiayi, Mei Siew, Rachel, Helen, Nicholas, Kelvin, Carlos, Casey and Ezra. I really treasure all the times I have spent with you people. I'm affirmative every moment was well spent. The choreographing at Dance Camp, the crapping at KAP, the screams and shrills when we experimented with the lifts, thanks for having such immeasurable faith in us seniors! Not to mention we have faith in you juniors too! It has only just begun for you all, so continue to keep that passion alive and strive for greater heights! We'll continually be behind you all!
And not forgetting our lovely supporters! (Without whom, we wouldn't have been able to be right where we are at the moment) The lovely hip hop ladies, Alicia, Serene (Hey Serene and Alicia! Both of you were SO LOUD that when you cheered for us, I reckon you both could have brought the house down!), Michelle and the rest of the hip hop people (who I only recognise some of you by face! But yup, I know you people came!), Sylvester (who helped us with our ramp too!), Yun Song, Sua Yu, Yong Hao, Yee Chien and Renyi! And all who came to support! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and your willingness to sacrifice your time just for us.
Journey. It doesn't end here. Seriously, it's only just beginning.
Just where do I even begin? Everything happened so quickly, I feel like I just woke up from a dream. Coming to school on Wednesday had nothing more than the thought that SYF has finally arrived. This is it, the point of no return. All these months of trainings just for this very day. When we got on the bus, it still felt weird. I seriously didn't know how to feel, so as with others, I started reading what the juniors wrote for me in that prettily assembled booklet, and ... I'm seriously VERY VERY touched. I LOVE ALL YOU JUNIORS! For all the heartfelt messages, for all the effort that you put into the dance, for giving it your everything. It was your messages that gave us seniors the final push to give it our all for the dance.
The bulk of the time spent in UCC was nothing more than having this dreadful feeling. Waiting. As we got closer and closer to our turn, there was this feeling of escalating excitement and anxiety. We didn't have any elaborate costumes like the other schools, we didn't have any elaborate make up like the other schools, BUT there was something that distinguished us from the rest of the schools. Other schools were probably busy with putting up appearances that they were not a force to be reckoned with, but who really cares? Seriously. All that mattered to us was that we were dancing together, and that we were going to get in there and give it our all for the dance.
When Dan got us to do our 'HA' together in unison without any cues, you knew straight away this dance was not going to be like any of the practices we had together. Everyone was together in this one movement and locked onto the same goal. I'm glad we did our prayer thing together, it was then that I felt back at peace with myself and with the group again. It was quite an out of this world experience, like how Meiling describes it, zen. Even when the guys were moving props backstage, there was this weird sense of longing to reunite with the girls as one group. Despite all the hiccups that had occurred backstage with the SYF judging committee about the settling of props, returning back to the girls who had been waiting at the corridor was nothing short of a sense of assurance that we were going to go out there and show what we were all about.
We didn't have to wait long before our turn was up. Oh yeah, this was it, this was the dance that was going to move and captivate the audience. I don't care how the audience would react to our dance, or even how the judges viewed our dance. We were going to do it for us, for M.A.D, for our passion for dance.
And so we did.
Never in my life have I felt so much simply through performing one motion. I simply had no consciousness of who I was. (It's a really amazing feeling when your mind blanks out and you have no idea about who you are. It's not amnesia, but more so of the feeling that you had no form of physical presence.) The moment your feet left the ground, you knew without doubt that everyone was on perfect timing. The moment you entered backstage, your heart, mind and soul was still out there on stage with your fellow dancers. And even though you were backstage, you felt the raw emotion of your fellow dancers on stage. I'm totally at a loss for words when it comes to describing how it was. Stunning. Heart Captivating. I could go on forever! Right at the finale when the red umbrella came up, deep inside, you could just sense that everyone was screaming out this insane YES! that filled the silence even when the lights dimmed.
Returning back to the holding area, I guess we were the only school that was drenched in tears! AH! The exhilaration and insanity of it all! I can still feel my heart racing as I'm typing this. We really DID IT! I'm pretty sure everyone is still in disbelief that our SYF has already gone to past! All 38 of us made it happen, and all that mattered was that we poured our souls out in that performance!
Oh yeah, and insane photo-whoring necessarily ensues!
Well, that aside. Even though I've never been part of any SYF before, I'm pretty sure never in history has any school received that much support for their SYF item. I heard that many schools specially stayed back just to watch our item, and even after we finished our item, there were still schools that came up to us to reassure us that our item was very good. I seriously don't know how all this came about, but I'm more than ecstatic that this happened! All the more so that we made their wait for our item worth the while! Not forgetting our NJC and SRJC friends who were there as well!
Night at Fish & Co. had even MORE INSANE photo-whoring, Mr. Dan singing and loads of pictures of faces of Kelvin and our Audrey smiles! It was a great night, never have I felt that relaxed on a weekday! I think we totally forgot we had school the next day! Talking to the juniors and taking photos as a J2 batch together totally completed the evening.
On my way back home with Ezra, we both agreed that it didn't matter anymore on a personal level whether we did get what we set out to achieve because in a way, we already did. M.A.D Modern grew closer as a group, us seniors and juniors connected together on an entirely different level and all of us gave one hell of a performance for SYF. In retrospect, I'm rather surprised how I managed to sleep so soundly after I got back home even though the results were to be announced the very next day!
So the next day came.
The moment I woke up, my mind had the words "Gold with Honours", and then following that were successive chills that ran down my spine and goosebumps! Getting to school was nothing more than waiting for that moment when the clock struck 11 am and when we would gather at the flag posts to find out the results. After biology lecture, I didn't even care to put my bag back at the class bench, I just made a direct dash for the central plaza where everyone was. Everyone stood in this circle and snuggled close together while Clarice called Mr. Dan. I'm sure we all had our little murmurs, utterances and prayers for us to hopefully be able to clinch that Gold with Honours.
Urgh, why did Mr. Dan have to add onto the suspense? Haha, he still wanted us to scream and shout into the phone before he told us. I'm pretty sure any moment then I was probably going to collapse and just faint on the spot if he had dragged it on any longer. Just tell us already!
So deciding that he had had enough fun already, Mr. Dan finally decided to tell Clarice our results. I don't think I'll forget the moment when I heard it come out of Clarice's mouth.
GOLD WITH HONOURS.
6 months of training flashed past just like that. And guess what? WE GOT WHAT WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE! From silver to Gold with Honours, this absolutely meant the world to us and M.A.D! This was no more just a target, because we had achieved it! It was our very own Gold with Honours! And all the more miraculous how everything fell into place just within 1 week after our open rehearsals.
To those who passed hurtful and cynical remarks, here's taking a slap back at your face. What do you mean when you said our dance was cheap? What do you mean when you said our dance was nonsense? If you don't even know what to look out for in a dance, do you have any right at all to even attach labels to our dance? To those who were never part of the performing arts, you'll never understand it means by 台上十分钟，台下十年功. If you're still not convinced, then get a ticket for Dance Night, and see why at the end of the day, we'll still be having the last laugh.
So what if people think that we are attention attracting when we knew our results? So what if people think that we're crazy? So what if people thought we were weird because we could cry and feel for our dance? We don't give a damn. We slogged our hearts and souls for our dance, and if you hadn't been there to witness it, you should just shut your gap and stop blabbering nonsense regarding why we don't deserve that Gold with Honours. And if you haven't even seen it yet, all the more you ought to shut your mouth. If you think you're that good, then go question the judges.
Journey. All of us went through this together, and all of us came out of it changed, in one way or another. It was a journey that was well travelled, and I feel really lucky and blessed that we were able to experience, as what Meiling has said "a fairytale ending" that so many others could only have dream about.
Thank you for accompanying me through this journey, Clarice, Meiling, Liu Qian, Samantha, Priscilla, Kelvin, Nicholas, Ainan, Kun Yu and Yu Xiang. You people absolutely rock as batch mates and fellow dancers. For all your encouragements, for all your wackiness, for all your 'allow-me-to-tag-around'ness, for shouting and screaming like lunatics, you people have made such an impact on me that even years down the road I'm still going to remember you all and for this effort that we put through to bring M.A.D. to even greater heights! There are absolutely no words that can describe how grateful I am towards you people and how much I love you all!
Thank you for accompanying me through this journey, Jia Yee, Han Lin, Nge Hwee, Wei Ting, Jia Ying, Sin Yee, Huitian, Adeline, Meijie, Han Zhi, Audrey, Xian Huan, Evelyn, Si Ying, Jia Yuan, Heather, Sharon, Jiayi, Mei Siew, Rachel, Helen, Nicholas, Kelvin, Carlos, Casey and Ezra. I really treasure all the times I have spent with you people. I'm affirmative every moment was well spent. The choreographing at Dance Camp, the crapping at KAP, the screams and shrills when we experimented with the lifts, thanks for having such immeasurable faith in us seniors! Not to mention we have faith in you juniors too! It has only just begun for you all, so continue to keep that passion alive and strive for greater heights! We'll continually be behind you all!
And not forgetting our lovely supporters! (Without whom, we wouldn't have been able to be right where we are at the moment) The lovely hip hop ladies, Alicia, Serene (Hey Serene and Alicia! Both of you were SO LOUD that when you cheered for us, I reckon you both could have brought the house down!), Michelle and the rest of the hip hop people (who I only recognise some of you by face! But yup, I know you people came!), Sylvester (who helped us with our ramp too!), Yun Song, Sua Yu, Yong Hao, Yee Chien and Renyi! And all who came to support! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and your willingness to sacrifice your time just for us.
Journey. It doesn't end here. Seriously, it's only just beginning.