Monday, October 26, 2009
tune up --
People asked me what made me start dancing, how i suddenly became a breaker, how i suddenly knew how to dance, what 22209 means, stuff like that. I guess i'll say it now, since its been a while. And before I forget it all somehow.
I never suddenly knew how to dance. It all started last december, when i was stuck with no one but myself to seek advice from for the choreography of a talentime dance performance. I never had the intention to learn dance till the day i started working on my first assignment as an exco member of my house, and couldn't seem to get anything in my head. Probably without talentime, i would be a very different person now.
Strangely, something told me that i might get something done if i walk around the neighbourhood for inspiration. and by pure coincidence I wandered to the lowest basement of bukit timah shopping centre (the uluest level of the uluest building in my neighbourhood) and found a group of breakers down there, rocking some amazing shit. I didn't dare to approach them at first, i thought it impossible for me to do anything like it.
The second time i went down there were less people, and I asked them where they were from after much courage. They told me that they were from a dance school just beside them, and gave me a pamphlet from their advertisement rack that showed me the details. The choice of joining this dance class was a twist in my journey that i would never ever regret.
The first day of my dance class was pretty much fail. Everything of mine was below par. I was placed at a side of the class to learn basic dance moves. I went home without saying bye to any of my classmates, feeling really embarrased. Told myself I will improve and not fucking lose face in front of any of those kids the next time i turn up.
They never really liked top schools. Hence I never told them which school i was in.
Gradually I started picking up the art, but the fact that I took up this dance alone was excruciating at times. I had no one to talk to or stick with during my classes. Attending the fuyo competition 2 months into my breaking proved to be pretty fail because i didn't know anybody, and was too inexperienced to join the cyphers. I felt really small, and couldn't share it with anyone. I was gradually exposed to smoke, liquor and cyphers, stuff i never thought i would even touch.
But what was worse was when certain friends i had responded to my new interest in ways which hurt me much.
"Dancer? Hahaha....mike seriously, i will never be able to imagine you dancing. come on! get real."
Nevertheless, we finished the choreography, and in january our dance performance was a success. I met breakers Chiap and Ye oon, who were inspired by their experience in OIP. We decided to train together, and learn new moves and share them with each other.
so 22209 was a day when i decided to enrol myself in a jitterbugs workshop for fun, with a friend. It was an adult hiphop class but i never knew how to dance hiphop. So i was the worst in the class and Patrick Loo, the teacher, singled me out as the "not so good dancer". "How old are you? (16.) Its okay, you have a long way to go." Stab.
I keep this date in memory, such that exactly one year from then, i would look back at where i have come from and can safely tell myself, I have improved, I have succeeded. I will be able to look at people in the eye and say that I am a dancer.
I gradually improved, met friends, or dance classmates Kokwee, Feifei, Benjamin, Keola, Sean, Jaydn, Yangrui and a few others. We got to know each other well and dance classes became more of a fun get-together than the arduous regime i experienced a few months ago. I could even teach some people a few moves when they needed help, which felt good (: Nas and Farhan were spectacular teachers, learnt a great deal from them about breaking techniques and history. Props to all these guys.
Hope to see yall soon, because the dance studio closed down after half a year of me learning there.
Decided to get some new people in my school that had similar interests, to keep the spirit alive. It was pretty hard to find the ones I know today. Some of them changed their interests along the way, some of them felt too committed, and some of them had their interests, but sadly didn't have the courage to continue with it. Fortunately I had a great team of friends I found and continued breaking with till this day - Yeoon, Chiap, Wilbert and I. Of course, there are those that are potentially coming in - Isaac and Weihing, and many others whom we just haven't found yet. In fact one day Troy, a RJ senior, found us breaking and joined us. Along the way he encouraged us to keep improving and stuff, and was willing to join us for subsequent sessions despite his A level preps.
All this while my 3 friends and I have been regularly training, doing what we love to do. As of now we might not have made a significant improvement, or looked really good. But we have an aim to fulfil, a point to prove, an addiction to satiate. And we will, through effort, continue to move forward and up.
So now it has been 10 months. And, yeah. its been 10 months. Perhaps few of you guys will be able to appreciate this post, its okay. Just felt inspired enough to write this today.
Just don't back down from whatever people throw at you that threatens to hinder you from doing what you love. Its just a matter of time before you are the one that eventually shines, leaving others gagging and choking from the snide remarks to be forced back into the mouths they once belonged in.
****
turn off
@
9:27 PM|
