This is a photo taken just before our dance competition in the Singapore Youth Festival. Although I only appear on the corner of the photo (the 1/4 person on the extreme right hand side), it was still the most valuable photo for my secondary school life. The photo was taken right outside the auditorium in which the Chinese Dance competition was held in the year of 2007. We were the dance troupe of our secondary school and we won gold prizes in almost all dance competitions among the secondary schools. We had strong choreographers and devoted dancers. That year, the topic we chosen for the dance piece was "surging waves", which depicted the energetic waves surging towards the beach. You could see this theme from our blue costumes. The right sleeve of the costume was made of white silk and purposefully elongated ("water sleeve") so as to create a fluttering scene when we dance with the long sleeve. Those silk sleeves were made to order in a famous silk workshop in China and shipped to Singapore. We were told to treat them as the most precious things we have and do not leave any marks or stains on them. It sounded quite easy, but proved difficult since it was inevitable that the sleeve accidentally sweep past another girl's lipstick and leave a pink stain on the white silk.
OK, I think you're now all boring with the details of my costume so I'll stop talking about it. There we were, sitting in a circle just outside the auditorium and trying to calm our minds through slow breathing. We prepared for almost six months for the dance piece and we must show our best to the judges and audiences. As our instructors have told us, we have already put all our best into practice and it's now God's blessing for a good score. He played soft meditation music for us, let us close our eyes and relax every cells in the body. This method was indeed helpful as we all felt relaxed and vigorous after the small meditation time. We really showed our brightest smiling face and most elegant movements. In the end we defeated hundreds of other schools to receive a "gold with honors" prize.
I wish to say my experience in the dance troupe is the most precious memory of my secondary school because dancing not only developed my aesthetic skills, but also help me become a resilient person. Training was hard for all of us, with hours of floor exercises, bar works and hours of extra stamina training (2.4 kilometers' running every two days). But we went through those all together, like a family. We comforted each other when we were down after hours of sweating; we shared our joys when one of us suddenly came up with a brilliant idea of choreography. We felt like brothers and sisters after the six months of training and preparation. That was a feeling I've never experienced previously. I still smile when I see this photo in my wallet, and think of the joy and sorrow I had four years ago.
I couldn't agree more with you. I have a friend who also dances and compete yearly at the Hmong New Year Celebration and they always take 1st place. Training is rigorous. Other than shipping their fabric and outfits, they all hand make every design to every inch of the fabric.
ReplyDeleteI see that over the year, as my friend grow older and become more mature, her level of involvement increases everyday. She becomes more courageous to speak out loud, she becomes more confident in her body and becomes more aware of her surroundings.
It's really interesting to learn about not only the art forms from other countries but the artists as well. I actually used to do classical style Indian dancing but quit early on because of that rigorous exercising you are referring to. Now, I look back and wish I had continued to dance so that I could have both memories of joy and sorrow like you did. Mine were a little more bitter than bittersweet...too many practice hours! The way you describe the dancing, the titles you won...it's easy to see that you carry dancing very close to you. Dancing was an integral part of your history, so to speak.
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