Nirvana in Pizza Pizza!

A while back, I background danced for a local Toronto singer called Lexi Tellings, along with some of the LOVE girls from VYbE.

Yesterday, my friend Henry messages me during the night and told me that he saw it playing on the Pizza Pizza in-store TV's!!!!! How exciting! Too bad he couldn't take a picture...

Please "Like" her on her Facebook fanpage HERE, she's a hardworking girl who deserves to to be known. She has a new single out now as well, called Buy Me a Drink featuring the talent Mister Park (previously introduced on my blog via the Battle In The Trenches event).

But here is the video if you haven't seen it yet:

I hope she is doing well! and we Thank her very much for the amazing opportunity!

Inspire Each Other,

There's always a First: Assisting Waacking Workshop!

This morning - and when I say morning I mean I woke up at 6AM... - I was asked by Apolonia Velasquez, co-head of Gadfly (amazing dancer, teacher, instructor, person, etc.!) to help assist in a Waacking workshop she was scheduled to do at Brampton. YAY!!!!!!!!!! She has unfortunately hurt her left shoulder last week (Feel better!), and needed someone to do the left side for her, and fortunate for me that I was given this insanely awesome opportunity. Really, you should see how big my grin is as I even write this (most of you will probably imagine it as you know I smile... a lot..)!

My visitor's pass (they spelled my name wrong.. ugh)

St. Augustine Secondary School (I believe that's what it was called) was a great host, and they have dedicated a lot of time and effort into their dance program at school. They have also had other super awesome instructors to teach workshops, including Pyro for popping and locking, and many more.

It was SO fun to assist Apolonia, it had gone surprisingly well and they were quite fast in picking up the drill and the style as well!! As for me, it was also beneficial because I was able to go slow and really watch my angles, and my technique, while trying to be a good assistant and not mess up because they were watching me and learning as well. And, I got to listen in on a bit of the history of Waacking from Apolonia which I never really knew (quite ashamed.. don't look at me like that!) so that was great, too!

All I needed: Water bobble, purse and my breakfast

It's now 11:15AM and my day has ONLY STARTED. Compared to waking up at 2PM yesterday doing nothing, I feel so accomplished already! But now... *drum roll please* NAP TIME!

Inspire Each Other,

It's my Birthday!!!

April 24th is a great day for Birthdays, Yay! I'm turning 23... Ahh so old! I think from now on, whenever someone asks, I'll just ask them how old they think I am.. And then just keep whatever age they give me...  Yes, I will stay young forever, thanks to my asian gene pool of the young-looking phenotypes (does that even make scientific sense?? Rusty university knowledge).

Happy birthday to Ralph Escamillan (Toronto Waacking extraordinaire), Vinh Nguyen (SGBM) as well as Ellen Kim (Movement Lifestyle)!! Two amazing and inspiring dancers I've always looked up to, and loved even more because they share the same birthday as me. So now, I am even more so convinced that I shall follow the footsteps of these great dancers since - let's be honest now - it's in the stars and signs!

APRIL24-IANS UNITE!

Inspire Each Other,

YOUR Projects: Henry's Thesis Video!

We've all been waiting for the final product of all our hard work... and here it is!!! (Please excuse my hilarious rusty acting/ improv....)

Here you can finally see Henry's vision put to life. The concept of a girl and a boy, just having a regular day, when you get a glimpse into the girl's point of view and thoughts. She depicts how she really feels about him, her true emotions, through dance, and her intentions of love through motion. The four girls can be translated (sort of) as different personalities, or different ways the (main) girl tries to express herself. Through some of the choreography you may be able to see some parts depicting a struggle. The struggle of loving someone so, so, so much you can't even express it without looking crazy (Lily's little crazy solo part).

I personally can really relate to this because sometimes when I just look at that someone, I have a rush of feelings and/or emotions that I want to show, but fear that I may seem crazy or too over the top. Or, even when I listen to a song, and it reminds me of someone, I just want to call them or find them and just smile, to feel safe with their mere presence. How do you relate to this? Anyone specific that comes to mind when you see this?

Congratulations to Henry for a successful thesis, I hope you get a super high grade with it, because we've all seen how much extra work and effort you've put in to this. Thank you for letting me be a part of this, and THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for allowing us to keep the outfits :)

UPDATE: Henry got an A+ on his project! YAYY!!!!! *Jumps and screams of joy*

And we've been reblogged by "fuckyeadance" of tumblr!! Click here for the link.

Click HERE for the credits and planning blog post of Henry's thesis.

Inspire Each Other,

Happenings: UDO Canadian Street Dance Championships

Date: Saturday April 7, 2012

It was such a last minute decision for me to go to this event (too long to type it all out... read the title)! Vinny was kind enough to give me a ride, as he was going to enter the locking battle along with Des. The battle was at the Hoop Dome in Downsview Park, a very nice and large sporting venue that had almost every type of court that you could think of. As we arrived they were at the Group dance competitions for ages 12 and Under. While they waited, some of the poppers and lockers used the other basketball court to warm up, plug in their headphones and jam a little by themselves. Most dancers were from the "Bahen Centre" session people, so I called it the Bahen Corner (No? Not funny?).

I got to see friends, and even meet quite a few people who I've seen from other events but never got the chances (guts) to say hi to. As always with anything dance related, the event was off schedule, albeit not too drastically off. During the children and teenager group dance divisions, Jade was the MC, and during the Battles, and the event hereinafter, LennyLen was the host of the night.

One of the things that I noticed from this event was that some facial expression of those in the dance group competitions were a little off.

Here are some clips of the event:

Footage from the Locking Battle. Congratulations to Mike for winning!

Footage from the Popping Battle. Congratulations to Engine for winning!

Inspire Each Other,

Me: What's my schedule like?

What's my schedule like every week?

Monday: Choreograph, Teach Recreational teams, Beginner sexy urban pop, Beginner hiphop

Tuesday: Take Pyro's popping class, maybe Locking

Wednesday: Choreograph, Teach Open Classes, Beginner Hiphop and Multi Level Sexy urban pop

Thursday: LOVE rehearsals

Friday: Bazaar rehearsals, Extra spotlight scene rehearsals

Saturday: Teach performance team, J VYbE, go to dance events 

Sunday: Take Apolonia's waacking class, Rehearsals with VYbE FAM

aaaaand... Repeat. 

x___X tired after class/ rehearsal..

But, I'm happy that I have the time and the means to do what I love. Although I do worry about money, and how on earth I'll survive as a starving artist doing what I want, I have to say I've had a lot of support from those around me. From people giving me valuable opportunities, to my family supporting what I do; I am without a doubt truly blessed and thankful. I am hopeful too that one day, I will make a good living out of dancing and performing. So, Bring on the crazy schedules and rehearsals, life! I'm READY!

What's YOUR dance SCHEDULE? 

There's always a First: Bazaar!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to perform at the BAZAAR stage in May 15 2012! Thank you so so so much to Pyro and Vanessa for choosing me and giving me a chance in their piece. I am also grateful to be dancing alongside such talented dancers: Kristine, Sarah, Eujean, Ralph, Sonic and of course Pyro and Vanessa. YAY!

This time around, BAZAAR's theme is Childhood. I wish I could tell you what this medley is like, but we'll all have to wait until that golden moment on stage!

Sidenote: I bought a Nikon DSLR a few weeks ago... And I'm so upset I haven't been able to play and experiment with it yet because it's back in Nikon to get fixed... the SD card eject button was rather faulty. I have to thank Kelvin Young for helping me bring it to Nikon, as well as teaching me some seriously valuable photography lessons. I can't wait to get my camera back in my hands!

Inspire Each Other,

Happenings: Luther Brown's Workshop

Date: Friday April 6, 2012

Luther Brown is one of the foundations of the Toronto Hiphop Dance scene. You are not a dancer if you don't know who Luther Brown is. He currently lives in Los Angeles, as a very successful choreographer. On Friday he held a workshop at OIP dance studio, located in Downtown Toronto. It was packed with all the people you needed to know, people supporting each other, supporting the community, supporting Luther Brown. 

Back in the day when I was still young, and in the Jr. VYbE team, I was fortunate enough to meet and learn from Luther Brown (Thanks, Tee!). Although I'm sure he doesn't remember me, I would never forget that time he taught us and introduced us to his style. 

His workshop was tiring, but so fun and challenging to me. His style is quite different to my own style, and so to emulate his style onto my own body took a little bit more work. When it came to doing the routine in groups, everyone danced with so much energy as if it were an audition. I learned a lot from that, because in this industry, if you want to be seen, you need to show the world what you've got. And you never know which time you dance will the right people be watching you, so dance your heart out, every chance you get. That's what I learned from this workshop.

Inspire Each Other,

Happenings: Battle In the Trenches (Battle & Performances)

Date: Saturday March 31, 2012

THE BATTLE

Let's talk about the 3 VS 3 Battle event of BITT! Recently I have been to more All Styles battle events around the dance scene (I would've blogged all about them if only I started this blog 3 months ago!), and have tried to familiarize myself with the format, and how to appreciate all styles of dancing.

I mainly judged based on the biggest and most important concept of dance: MUSICALITY. Even Pyro, who was a judge as well, stated it before and during the battle that competitors needed to listen to the beat and work with the music, not against it. An extremely talented breakdancer who can hit all the power moves (windmills, air flares, head spins, etc.) may not move to the next round if they do not hit the beat correctly. They might as well have danced without music on at all if they don't have musicality and worked with their 5 6 7 8's.

BATTLE VIDEO LINKS

EZ vs Team K.E.N.N.E.T.H. /// UHS vs NORTHERN NINJAS

ORION vs B UNIQUE /// TRUDOPE vs RICHMOND GREEN vs HIGH VOLTAGE

Semi Finals: UHS vs EZ /// ORION vs HIGH VOLTAGE

Finals: HIGH VOLTAGE vs EZ CREW

CONGRATULATIONS to Thornlea's HIGH VOLTAGE for winning the 3 VS 3 battle!!! And congratulations to St. Augustine's EZ crew in getting to the finals!!!

AUDIENCE BATTLE

I don't have any footage from the audience battle, but CONGRATULATIONS to JULIANA QIAN for winning the audience's hearts as well as the prize (I wonder what the prize was...?)

PERFORMANCES & SHOWCASES

There were two special performances by Mister Park and Snowzei, both of which I can't find videos for... But if you were there, you'd definitely know how entertaining it was! Of course they both had dancers (this being a dance event and all...) Mister Park was accompanied by Tyrell and Jey, while LOVE girls danced with Snowzei on stage. Her singing performance was then followed by a piece from Yours Truly, Me! Enjoy some of the photos taken from these performances!

(Photos all taken by Peter Liang, via VYbE Dance Company Facebook Page)

JUDGES SHOWCASE VIDEO LINKS

J4S (me) and DANNY

QUAN of VISUAL ASSAULT

PYRO of TWISTED ANKLES

Woo!! Finalllllllly done blogging about this event. Honestly, if you were there, you'd agree with me that it was a really successful and fun event and if you weren't there, don't you WISH you went! :)

Inspire Each Other,

Happenings: Battle In The Trenches (Groups Post)

Date: March 31, 2012

WOO! That's right, we all got B.I.T.T.!!! What an event to cover... Where should I start??

CAST AND CREW:

BOSS: Teego VYbE

Technical Support: Lawrence Ahn, Joyce Deng, Jeffrey Duong, Jody Choi

MC: Andrew Pyro Chung

Performances by: Mister Park (with Jeyaram and Tyrell), Snowzei (with the LOVE girls)

Judges: Quan Tran, Leah Totten, Danny Huang, Jasmin Yeung (me!!)

An amazing event hosted by VYbE Dance Co., set in the St. Augustine Catholic High School's cafeteria. It consisted of three major parts: High School group dance competition, the 3 vs 3 All styles battle, and the 1 vs 1 Audience Participation Dance Battle.

This was my first time judging ever.. What fun and Excitement!

Group Dance Competition

It was an eye-opener to see what the teams came up with! To see such potential, such anxiety and nervousness, to see their hunger and eagerness to put everything they've got on stage... It really inspires me too, to never forget this aspect of dance and why I love it so much. I really tried to smile as I was judging, because I know how nerve-wracking it is to stand up there with the audience and judges glaring up at you... So I tried my best to be pleasant... I wonder if they noticed?

Since I have made this blog to reach out to people, I figured I'd use this as a means of expressing my thoughts on each of the teams, since there were only 5 teams that competed. You ready? Feel free to comment if you think otherwise, or agree with what I say! Most of the comments can be overlapped on other teams as you will see.

GROUP VIDEO LINKS (You're very welcome!)

Thornlea's High Voltage 

Richmond Green

St. Robert's Orion

Trudeau's Tru-Dope

Bur Oak's B Unique

Group picture with EVERYONE! (Photo From: VYbE Dance Co.) 

IN ORDER OF PERFORMANCES

Thornlea HIGH VOLTAGE - Loved your smiles! The routine was very clean for the most part, clean lines, and angles. However, it was pretty evident when you began to feel tired towards the end (but only during the last song, if I recall correctly). You made great use of the stage. It seemed that the style was pretty consistent overall in the whole set, I'd consider pushing boundaries a little more, making your set a little bit more versatile. Some people kept facial expressions, but some didn't, and I'd love for you guys to keep your faces as energetic as your dances are! CONGRATULATIONS ON FIRST PLACE!!!!

Richmond Green - I heard that you are all grade 9 students!! Very proud of you joining the competition and putting yourself out there! I wish I was that brave at such an age. I'd like to see most people in most of the routines, snce it makes a more entertaining visual than just 2 or 3 at a time. I'd work on the transitions of each song, since, there were quite a few dead air moments where the song was going on but no movement, as if you were just waiting for the 1 to hit. Same thing for you, I'd love to see you sell your performance through your expressions, most of your team looked down a lot, but your facials can really brighten up the performance! Keep it up, you're all just starting, and I (among many others) sense potential!!

St. Robert's ORION - *Sparkles*! haha Great job at leaving a lasting impression on "Sparkles"! You guys need to work on your endurance, as it was quite obvious on your faces when you became tired on stage, which you should always try to cover! Having said that, I REALLY loved how you adjusted your facial expressions with each song and mood. Cute faces with a cute song, and fierce faces with a fierce song. Great! It was fun to see you highlighting the only boy in your team as well. Keep it up, and Congratulations on Second place!!

Trudeau TRU DOPE - I absolutely love that fact that you are having so much fun on stage! I can see it in your faces, and feel it radiating throughout the venue! Thank you for your lovely smiles. There were some parts however, some of you were keeping your eyes glued to the floor, and not looking to the audience or the judges. Just remember to keep in mind that when you are on stage, you are in the spotlight, and you should not hide your presence by looking away from those who came to see your amazing faces on stage! It was also great that you decided to work on different dance styles throughout your set, and I know how much work that takes! Good for you for going outside of your box. Congratulations on Third place!!

Bur Oak B UNIQUE - I really loved the part where you used the dubstep song (even though I don't like dubstep myself) it was a great use of teamwork and coordination. You could have used the stage space a little more, even when you have so little people. As well, you should work on the musicality a little more. Sometimes some of the team members were a little off beat. All in all, a good performance and I hope you continue training and work on your skills and bring out the competition next year!

I am EXTREMELY grateful for this opportunity to judge the BITT event, and I have none other than TEEGO to thank!!! So a special shout out to her and VYbEDANCE Company (please follow us! twitter link here)!! I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too!

Inspire Each Other,