SASAS 2016 : Dancing in a Battle
A few years back I had the opportunity to witness the
Tri-uni Pokémon Dance Battle organized by NTU's SoulFunky. It was my first time
attending a dance battle and man was I clueless on the protocols that governed
these things. At that time, I had vague knowledge of dance battles with my
spectrum of understanding gathered only from dance battles I had watched on
YouTube. The live experience was no doubt refreshing and even inspiring with a
few faces making reappearances at other dance battles in the following years to
come.
13 August 2016 marks a milestone for Soulmix. This was the
day Soulmix had its inaugural internal dance battle event, Soulmix All-Styles
All-Stars or SASAS for short. The honor was mine to have worked with a small
team of dedicated dancers to make this event possible. While it is true that
our crew had a majority of young dancers, it brings me great motivation to see
these young dancers stepping up and even pawning my pseudo-dance butt. I truly
hope that all who took part in the proceedings, whether as a contestant, a
judge or an audience bring back a little spark to experiment and push
yourselves further in terms of dance.
A wise man once told me that in order to be a true dancer,
one has to be able to learn choreographies, choreograph to music and also be
able to participate in dance battles. With time, I had came to the
understanding that these boiled down to 3 simplified complexities of dance
which is to execute moves, to visualize dance, and to understand music. Of
course these 3 essence of dance do not in any way possess any kind of mutual
independence.
Free styling is no doubt the blue cheese of dance for most
dancers. We know its edible and its just cheese but the smell and sight of the
fermented produce is just quite off putting for most. I say just take a bite,
we might come to enjoy the taste and for all you know, it might change your
life forever (yes, cheese is that great). Some people might need a little push,
a little coaxing or even a little pressure to finally take the dive but unlike
water, dance is forgiving and everybody survives the plunge.
Throughout the journey to SASAS 2016, I've heard many
comments with the effect of "hating free styling". It does sadden me
that sometimes we fear that which we do not fully understand. Before I had any
opportunity to try contemporary, I always thought it was a feminine genre and
was "boring" but having had a few classes by seniors and peers, it is
definitely one of my most respected and enjoyable genres now (even though I
still can't properly point my feet). Sure, free styling might not come
naturally and it might take a bit to push beyond one's comfort zone and no
doubt the intimidation of battles do not aid in the process but here's my take,
once you jump off and hit plunge into the deep end, once its over, you'll
realize you can swim (or float at least).
SASAS 2016 was also the first time I've experienced a dance
battle as a contestant. With my limited vocabulary and an inability to funk, I
was knocked out in the early stages but it didn't really matter because I had
tremendous fun (but definitely not looking forward to the videos where I made a
fool of myself). For me, dance is simple, you either aim to impress or aim to
entertain. The latter, I believe, is definitely
my forte.
They say dance is a form of expression. I say express freely
and speak the music of your soul through your body. Like speech, it doesn't
matter if you do not own an array of vocabulary or if your voice sounds funny.
Some people are more fluent in certain languages and that's fine too. Travel
out of your comfort zone because it just doesn't make any sense to meticulously
prepare a speech when having a conversation.
To Soulmix, thank you for supporting SASAS 2016
and here's to a great year ahead.
Volume 2 please?
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