300508 Sunny
1300
Location: NUS UCC
I've taken off 2dae to come and watch Aristal 2008. I was almost dozing off sitting in the hot sun waiting for yeeshiang to come out of the backstage for lunch break when i saw this guy walking past me. "Jin hao (Jiu jian)!" I haven't seen this rvds senior for quite some time and he's had a new hair style -- long, slick hair. He's here to meet Guofeng and Gordon for lunch since he's working nearby in NUS.
Shortly after dancers flooded out of the UCC to have lunch. I met Yeeshiang, Guofeng, Gordon, JeeKai, Junhong and a whole lot of other junior dancers, many of whom i've worked with for 5 or 6 yrs (since RV and then NJ).
It's really been an awful wait and i'm glad i get to see my fellow dancemates again.
1400
Location: UCC backstage
Jinhao left to go back to work but he'll be comin with weizhi later at nite. I'm the only guy that's not dancing but is at the backstage. Felt abit awkward as i dunno who i can talk to, since everyone is sleepy. The gals made cupcakes for everyone, including the guys. Had a hearty chat with yeeshiang, junhong, guofeng, jeekai and gordon, kendrick outside the chinese dance guys room b4 yeeshiang left for rehearsal for peter gn's western dance.
I went to the seats to watch chinese dance have their rehearsals. It was definitely different watching my juniors dance in their costumes. It made the dances so much better. The alumni item was abit chui, but it's expected since they only met up once a week, the gals twice. I saw Jacq..and she seemed lyk she's anorexic. She told me she had been working 7 days a week. It really made her whole face and body chui. Although she may not dance as well as b4, she still is good at identifying any flaws in the dance. Wang Da (Dashu) also danced in the all guys' item, much like in my j2 year, where he joined us for xiang.
I guess UCC is really much betta than last yr in nyp, where the stage sucks. The lighting here is excellent (managed by shuhui jie again). And the sound system is outstanding. I saw alot of other ppl who came back to help, like jessica, wenlin, and i also met ms sim (mrs ong). The only difference is the other chinese dance teachers are ms ling (the very fierce maths teacher during her lecture) and mrs yeo (the very fierce elderly chem teacher during her lecture). Mrs Yeo even asked me abt teck wang and wanzhen...and whether they are together. i didn't dare to say much.
And thru the teachers' conversation, i realized i'm already j4! Man that's old. Getting j3s, j4s and even j5s to come back to help..really mind-blowing. NJCD has very thoughtful dance alumni.
After the rehearsal, everyone went for dinner. I bought a spare tix from ms sim so that i can watch on the seats. She's still a very nice teacher. Not only did she rmb me, she and jeekai tried to help me get tix when i haven't come with one, and allow me to watch their rehearsals.
While having dinner, we saw Zhichen (not kendrick) strolling in. He's part of the 4 ,together with Feng laoshi (hui jun), that are the guest dance performers from dhts (horizon) invited by peter gn and nj. I dun think he recognized me coz i'm wearing this thick "chiong sua" specs. Many of those who dun noe me have to take a 2nd look at me b4 they recognise me. Which is good. coz i dun wan unwanted attention. The night belongs to the dancers.
1800
After dinner, everyone started putting on makeup..something i hated in the past coz it blocked all the pores and make ur complexion sux. Somehow, i missed that feeling..of preparing to get onto stage, of getting nervous but anticipating the perf. I missed dancing with the guys. Yeeshiang leads the "onslaught" of the cameras, going around taking photos with anyone he noes. The excitement is hard to contain. They say a picture speaks a thousand words. It is like a memoir. But somehow u won't see any pics on my blog. That's not bcoz i dun lyk pics, (i dislike taking photos myself...) but rather, i dun mind other pple taking photos with me. I believe the best pictures are those that i keep in my mind.
1900
The concert is abt to start. Yirong, Nigel and Debbie have all managed to sneak into the back stage..and they bought lotsa goodies! Great energy boost for the dancers. Ohya, forgot to mention, this guy called kee rui, previously from nan hua dance is ken's junior! Very pleasant and interesting guy to talk with. Kept telling me that ken's secret can't be kept...haha. The j3s, j4s and j5s took pics 2gether. I dind't join in. It's a night for them. Nigel and i helped to take photos. He's in ASLC now, this b8stard.Lol. Still give me that fierce look initially, guess he's too tired. Anywayzzzz, I realised all of us haven't really changed much yet, i still noe gordon, guofeng, jinhao and gang as they were. It's very..touching to noe that we are still...ourselves. I dunno. The "dancers".
I left the backstage shortly after yirong, nigel and debbie left. Was thinking that i should have gotten one njds jackets coz it's trendy and can keep myself warm in the UCC, when i saw weina. She was here with one of the choreographers chii tarng. Chatted with her for awhile. Then proceed to queue up to enter the hall when i saw Kurt and Jefferey. Kurt See. My lower sec classmate. Long time no see man. He's now a technician and same section as tian meng, another classmate. Kept seeing ppl i noe since rv.
Then i called shiu cheong, that hamster, to ask him where he was. He was taking cab with jojo, xiuyi. I entered the hall first and the first person i noticed happens to be Mr Ng! I've heard from other jc classmates that Mr Ng had changed alot since we graduated, and i found out from our conversation that he had opened up much much more than last time, where he was more shy and less confident. Then i met yuanjie,who juz booked out from steigmond camp. The signal coporal. Lol. Him with his botak and assault pack tells it all. I also see pengyi (he's really plagued by his illness, getting plumper and plumper everytime i see him, hope he's doing well) and vanessa, the mini felicia (shiucheong called her mouse).
After chatting with yuanjie, i left him to chat with nigel and gang and went back to settle into my seat. I was reading the synopsis for the dances when shiucheong hit me on my once again injured left arm (really feel lyk allen walker..that cursed left arm) and i jumped up and shouted "u fxcker!" and it's when i realized priscilla and sokhuang sitting behind me. Damn paiseh. So we chatted abit and i said hi to yeeshiang's parents , xiuyi, peckying and made fun of shiu cheong abt lester. We were scheming to get into the backstage when the lights start to darken. so i returned to my seat, saying hi to jojo, who was sitting with debbie in front of me. (Shiucheong wanted me to hit jojo's head, which makes no sense.)
2000
The performance finally started. The opening dance is zest of youth. The music is still happy valley by vanessa mae. I have been hearing it since sec 2..as it was used first in my sec 3 syf item "fervent heartbeat of my homeland". Even the costume and the drums are re-used. But..the feeling is still there. This music, no matter how many times u have heard of it..still gives u the impact. Yes, it was an overwhelming opening item. I always love the music. Reminds me of the time i dance in RV. I was especially impressed with the junior guys, coz alot of them can do back flips, thou some of them are from nan hua dance. "Zuo3 shou3 luo2, you4 shou3 gu3, shou3 na2 zhe4 luo2 gu3 lai2 qing4 zhu4..."
2nd item is "energy of life" by western dance, choreographed by Dan. I like the item coz of the electrician costume and the different types of props used, like wooden sticks (i once loved playing with it in sec sch) , flags and innovative dance steps.
5th item oriental beauty by dashu shows the elegance of the dancers. I'm always impressed with the chinese poems they use in their synopses..really dunno where dashu find them.
The malay dance item b4 interval was way too long. Make me very sleepy thou it really humored me. They borrowed the chairs from njcd (malay version of nv3 ren2 xiao3 pin3?) as well as the umbrellas. Then there were even scenes of zhen zi! Lol.
Interval
Still couldn't find a way to sneak in, so shiucheong, yuanjie, nigel and i went out the hall for awhile, and met yongliang! Never see him for ages..he still looks nerdy. But it's glad to see him at this perf. Then i went back in again with shiucheong to chat with xiuyi, qihan, peckying. Lester seemed quite pissed, but i think it's good to declare urself "harmless", like shiucheong, so that he can still converse normally as frenz with her. haha. I kept kaobei them why never invite me for mahjong. It was really so long since i see the st nicks gals, they were less politic than rv dance gals, and more friendly. Then i returned to my seat , saw that vxgina ching and sharon phua. Chatted with jojo again b4 the show restarts.
The 1st item after interval is guest perf by dhts, the troupe that i joined in sec2. It's great to see ppl i noe dancing, like fenglaoshi, zhichen and gang. Reminds me of the times when i was learning ballet then with gordon, guofeng, kendrick, yeeshiang, wanzhen, yunhsiu, jilyn, weina, jojo and more to mention. fenglaoshi aka huijun aka Liz Fong is dame pro la. Still as good as b4, and like yeeshiang commented, her short hairstyle is really..damn chio! Not many ppl can still look attractive sporting a short hairstyle, especially for a dancer, mind u!
Next up, the all guys item "haven" by njcd guys and dashu. Dashu is still as good as ever. Although he will be 26 the day after aristal, he's still a very pro dancer. But the rest of the guys are still good. Junkai, keerui, shibin, edison, desmond, hanxie and huachoon. I can see that a new generation of guy dancers have taken over my batch. And they are in fact better than us. Impressive. I always thought that the quality and techinques of dancers will drop over the years, but they prove me wrong.
The third item after the interval was western dance "forever with you" by shi wei and chii tarng. Something that i've noticed is the ballet group of western dance is stronger than the previous few years, whereas their hip hop standard has dropped. Without shiwei as the guest choreographer, i guess this dance wouldn't have stood out from the rest at all. It's my favourite western dance item. "chi wa wa...tua sia(louder), chi wawa...tua sia, chi wawa". I like the fusion of musics including 881 "ji lang ji pua",R&B "because of you" N "apologise". The concept of this dance is also interesting, depicting a couple's love story. Really entertaining. It was also then i realised that mr ho was no longer in charge of njwd, coz he's sitting in the audience seats.
The 3rd last item is peter gn's "answer" in tibute of the founding of njwd. Yeeshiang also joined the dance..coz of peter gn, naturally, as he's one of his most admired dance choreographers. It's like eastern sunrise, a peter gn's classic, with the first part being classical music and the 2nd part a song "Georgia".
The last item is "break of dawn" by njcd alumni. I dunno whether if it's too cold or i really feel an urge to dance, coz throughout this dance, my whole body is jerking. The gals are better than the guys, but still, it's a pleasure to watch them dance again. I especially like to watch gordon and guofeng dance 2gether, coz they were like my idols since sec sch and i loved the way they coordinated and the stunts they do.
Finally the concert ended. And it's a craze as everyone ran to take photos with the dancers. We waited outside the backstage for our "heroes" to come out. Shunting arrived too, from her dance practice beside ucc. We waited for long b4 yeeshiang, guofeng, gordon ,kendrick and gang finally came out. I even saw the dhts gang. Only this gal managed to recognise me as "harry potter" (my nickname in horizon), thou i really can't rmb who she is. I spoke to huijun jie , shuhui jie, as well as take photos with huijun jie, jacq, the dance guys, the trio, horizon mates. I also chatted with yiwen, xiaopeng, vanessa (i apologise for pumping her in sec3, but apparently she forgot), weizhi, and a bunch of juniors. (can't rmb, too many ppl!) It's really glad to meet alot of long-lost friends that were once very close in dance, be it rvds or njcd. Dashu, our "Wonder Wang" even received a shirt with "I am Wang Da" on the back and "Wang Da is everything" on the front. Cool.
2330
Later on, we went for supper at The Cheese Prata House near NUS. (i still rmb we came here 2 years ago after aristal.) It's as if nothing had changed, the same place i last performed, the same place i last had supper after an aristal perf, the same faces i saw 2 years ago. the only thing that changed are perhaps the dancers. Yeeshiang, Shiucheong, xiuyi, shunting n I chatted casually, ranging from how junhong kena suan by his own juniors as "bu jun bu hong" (not handsome not popular) and what we are doing currently. I hvnt seen shunting for some time too, though i always heard abt the st nicks trio (xiuyi, shunting, peckying) from shiucheong and yeeshiang.
We even sang happy bdae songs for dashu (and a few times too..coz there are so many groups of chinese dancers sitting everywhere!) I took cab home alone after that...knowing in my heart that, with all these acquaintances i made in dance from the past and present, i'll never be alone.
I hope i can dance one day..even if i have to break my arm.
&its not what you think
4:17 am
