Guided Shelter: Chapter 20 - The soothing touch of Ease

Joey Sunbae-nim & I ; Look at our Racoon-boxed-in-the eye make-up for SYF O__O

Christina,Joey&I after washing up after SYF: Ahh~ So much better without make-up!

Yo, SYF is finally over, and I can concentrate more on my studies now. That's the good thing. But the sad thing is the missing of going for practice countless times in a week. However, now that SYF is over, we will have new things coming in and I really wonder what are those "things"~ Not confirmed yet so..Mm..

Anyway, we got a Bronze for SYF and I am actually half-happy about the award. Before saying anything more, I shall state that the judges this year raised the level/standard of skill&technique because some schools did really(!) well this year and thus, we got a Bronze. In SYF, I was told the judges will compare every single school with each other and see where the standard is at. Apparently, I think there were some schools who did many stunts, flying here and there and definitely had the technique and skill thus the standards were raised.

When I first heard we got Bronze, I knew I would expect that yet I still thought we could get at least a Silver. Yet I heard that schools that had danced WOW-ingly on the day we performed also, got a Bronze. They really "Wow"ed us yet they got the same award as us, same standard in the judges' eyes. I guess their not looking for Hiphop dancing...

But for us, we didn't do Hiphop, we did some weird kind of dance that I don't think I can call it Contemporary. It was just - weird. A weird dance of the future, we're zombie robots that dominate the future;That kind of weird. Heard that the judges gave comments about our dance too. They said our foot work from one place to another was quite messy and our choreography was very repeated. About the foot work, I admit that it's cause we didn't pay much attention to that when we were in practice.

But about choreography being repeated, that is to be told to whom? The instructor, the person who choreographed the dance, the person who rushed to finish our dance. In the beginning of the year, she made our steps very...Not moving, just walk here and there, and said that was her style so we should follow too. My Teacher-in-charge, Mdm Law, did not approve of such kind of dance thus she asked her to change the steps to more bigger actions, "flying" actions. So yeah, she did change the actions to more "flying". And that "flying" action, was repeated 3 times in our whole choreography, and it took up about 2/5 of our whole choreography, the too-much-repeated steps comment from the judges, was that "flying" action.

What about the other 3/5? It was basically consisted of re-used steps we used for our Sec 1 Orientation performance and the move-here-and-there steps that Mdm Law DIDN'T want. Can you see that the instructor did not put her heart into helping us choreograph a nice dance? I knew we could do much better with a better choreography. And what made me upset is, she choreographed for another school taking SYF this year too, and she said she hoped that school can get a Gold. Then what about us? If she wants to dedicate herself to one school, why put a half-hearted instructing in our school? Maybe, that school had better foundation and technique in dancing, thus it was easier to teach them more steps. But as an instructor, it is also her job to let us learn the techniques, she did for the first time she came in, but gave up on us just like that, after seeing that we can't do it properly. If she taught us and pushed us more, I bet we could've mastered those skills.

The seniors(Sec 4s&3s) WANTED to feel pain during warm-ups, training on splits, trying to do some stunts and other things like that. But our warm-ups were easy things that can help us in balance and stuff(That is important) but she didn't emphasize anything on real stretching.

But there's still one more reason that the judges gave us a Bronze despite such a simple(!) choreography - We had the Energy(Aura). On that day itself, we really let it all out, after performing I could still feel myself having the after-effect, wobbling;shaking from putting so much energy, and even feeling the energy put by others. Maybe that's the reason we got a Bronze, we didn't have enough technique, but the energy was there. I believe that if we had a better choreography, plus the 3 months of time to train, we could've gotten a Silver, or a bonus of Gold.

To summarize, I do like my instructor as a person, we laughed with her while having normal conversations, but when it comes to her choreographing, I wish we could just change to a BETTER instructor. But I know it's not up to our choice to choose who we want to be taught by but without doing anything, we can't make the dance better right? I'm glad yet sad that SYF is over, the journey was really tiring, stressing yet enjoyable.

I know there's no use of regretting, I don't regret at all. And there's no use of complaining, but I am just saying what I feel, opinions you know. And what I've said, it is a fact AND an opinion. So I'm just saying~

I will always dedicate myself to Modern Dance and can't wait to perform as Modern Dance for future performances, am also planning to go back after I graduate to help Modern Dance out to get our Gold! I know that Modern Dance will always continue to improve, there's no limit~

Thank you Lord, Our God.

I didn't type too much did I?

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