Photo Shoot Wrapped Up!

We had our photo shoot wrapped up 2 days ago and it was a success! My students, all of you got lots of great images, and we cannot wait to see your whole package album to arrive! I hope the photographer will send the products promptly. Thank you to all who have came throughout the whole shoot!

If you didn't get a chance for the shoot, don't worry. We will organize it again soon. Here are some of the photo shoot on busy days!

My body is asking for rest…

Sushi Design Donut-shi from Big Apple Donut

Stay up late, get up early, therefore not getting enough sleep energy....I had flu the last couple of days when I was back to K/L. Everything just seemed wrong, my body, my mind, the temperature...... It had nothing to do with my busy schedule but everything to do with the world cup, world cup world cup…. I am not the world cup fever but will love to see the world’s best footballers to play. But surely cannot follow all the time because eyes cannot open if stay up late in the midnight.

Sharon went out to find something to eat and she bought Sushi Design Donut for me. Hmmm…. Since she was so happy with that colorful Donut-shi, I can't say no to that! I tried some, those were okay. Honestly, seeing the crazy creations was more fun than actually eating them.

I know my body is crying out for sleep, I forgo my practice and let my body rest.. Well, at the very least I am hoping to move back to some of ‘normal’ routine (nothing can really be called normal in this year of madness) next week with more work and more class. Luckily all class are evening classes, so it is easy to balance work and class time.

Nagging Ache....

First of all, I would like to thank you if you are a regular reader of my blog. There is nothing more natural for me than to share my belly dancing journey with you all. In between with my very stressful job, traveling for workshops, learning how to dance, holding a dance event, etc and etc. I'm learning more and more that people in the local dance community are teaching when they have no business doing so and its hurting dancers left and right. I see it happening too often.

When I started using Facebook, it was largely something that I used for real friends to share updates of what I was doing. And today, my facebook became less and less relevant to my real life friends and family. I’m usually pretty positive but actually I do worry we have now been too exposed. As a result my facebook friends grew, half of whom I don’t actually know in real life. Good or Bad?

Copying others choreography - My good friend told me this is the side effect of being creative. There are people who wait to steal the ideas from others because they are lazy or simply lack imagination. It is supposed to be flattering, but it is frustrating instead. It has happened to me so many times :-( But this is when I realized that I was not giving my work the value it deserved. Other people were willing to copy and even damage friendship over it, and I thought I was just playing around. I KNOW that my creativity is worth a lot. Stealing by others made me stronger and even more creative. People can copy but it will always be an imitation.

Promoting - My student told me I should go ahead and “re-brand” the word to sell myself, but I don't like to ‘big talk to promote’ so I have never seen it as any serious option. So my reply was simply to do this in a truthful and honest way. I remember my best sister told me last few years this : “The more people knew me, the more people jealous about me” She said my personality is more the kind that will do it for others. If I want to become REALLY famous, I probably need to find a manager, simply because my personality is not the self-promoting type. I laughed and said : “Sister, you really understand me well!”

Famous & Talent - There are many types of artists (dancers in our case). The extremes are those who use their art to glorify only themselves and those who share their art while keeping themselves unknown. And all the dancers in between. The ideal is a balance of both. There are ultra famous dancers without much talent, and there are ultra talented dancers without much fame. The difference is how one is able to use promotions, and sometimes luck of being in the right place at the right time. This is sad, but true. You see the same happen in all forms of art: writing, painting, acting, music, etc...I truly believe that a genuine talented artist is always respected for their work, but promotion into fame is something totally different.

Sorry to nag here! I just need to ‘gotong royong’ all the messy thoughts then I will have a good creative spark to get going.

Sunglass In Studio

Everyone told me I looked tired and I thought I looked great except for my huge eyebags. I decided to go for the cosmetic surgery to remove my eyebags. This decision was made a few months back when my sister did her cosmetic surgery in Loh Guan Lye Specialist Centre. She looked years younger and felt fabulous after the surgery.

Finally, I went for my eyebags removal surgery with my friends in DR. Nara Clinic. I tell you, it was a 45-minute heart-stopping and frightening moment! The nurse took my pictures before the surgery. The doctor gave me anesthesia and I was unconscious for the first 30 minutes on my right eye. The whole process of the surgery wasn't painful. But I slowly get more conscious when the doctor pull my skin, cut and stitch on my left eye. Weee…..I have to hold my breath and let the doctor finish it.

I cant fully open my eyes after the surgery, I actually thought of drive home but my lower eyelid areas were heavily plastered, I saw 2 shadows in everything and that really makes me sleepy most of the time. I stayed one night in my friend’s house and drove home on the next morning.

The surgery was fine and recovery very fast. I do not need the pain killer or sleeping pills. I am rather pleased with his work as my eyes were just bruised a little on the next day. I trusted the doctor much so I went back for my teaching class on the 3rd days with sunglass. Of course it were still swollen at that time. Thanks God it wasn't painful at all.

My eyes are currently dry and a little sore now. I have to put eye-drops every 2 hours. Yay…my eyebags gone! I looked years younger and felt fabulous too! Thank goodness I don’t have to try so many different eye cream and eye gel which are so darn expensive! I definitely will take some pictures when I'm fully recovered from the bruises! Hurray… cant wait for my photo shoot!

Weekend Work

Been so busy these day…. There are really times when a 24-hour day is not enough. The solution? Extend it to 36 hours or working overnight. Then, I asked myself, so many things to do, so little time. Am I going crazy? Going to get crazy for the rehearsal. performance, choreographies, competition, costume…Huh! I really miss the old times, doing nothing, Then after work I would go to aerobics class then spend my time having some good rest, watching television and of course Hong Kong drama series!

As if the late nights or overnights are not enough, I have no weekend rest day, that’s exactly how it is living as a dancer and or choreographer. I’m staying up late here to plan my students activities, preparing the class routine. The routine is my dance life. And finally, I’m excited to teach the sassy, chicky routines. It’s all about the moves, sure you will enjoy for an hour of fun choreography, especially with challenges, so my lovely students, stay tuned!

Too Greedy...

I have a long holiday last week and have caught up on all pending sleep. Now that I’m back, and while I was reflecting on this pile of work, I realized that my long pending to do list kept getting longer and longer. Argh… Life becomes a never ending cycle of tasks and deadlines.

I'm working on something relatively new for me, more advance choreography, focused on what most of us call layering, core isolations, shimmies, foot placement patterns and put it all together in an exciting new choreography. And it all seems like a good idea to me in the moment. Wowee!

One of my student mentioned that my choreography is too difficult and too many moves/patterns. That is an excellent point, because I consider dancing to the music is the most important quality a dancer can have, isolate and dance to the various beat and melody was at the top of my list. Yes, I agreed sometime the M.E.D music is too complex, the beats and musicality offer countless options to move to. Yes, I think I am too greedy, I want to dance to all the nuances (this is what I heard from my student - too many movement) which is often way too much! I have no doubt some of them had a lot of fun with my new choreography, but at the end of the class they seemed exhausted, Now I know why.

Never mind, we will work on the quality of a step, you will get better! It is great that I have given this feedback. There are countless things I need to work on!!