Merlion International Dancesport Championship 2006

Woah... what a journey it has been for all of us. Since the beginning of june, we have started preparing for it, building up to yesterday. It was definately a great experience. The times we shared, all the frustrations and make up...lol

All of us, no matter what placing, were winners in our own right. I believe all of us went home with our own personal lessons learnt and experiences gained. Well it was quite a feat for all of us to pull it of, considering that it was the first time they organised a salsa category in a traditional dancesport setting. All of us had no idea how we would be judged, what song would be played so basically, we just had to go there and just do it...

Elieen and clarence were placed 4th while shervonne and i were placed 3rd. I personally felt i could have done better but im still happy nevertheless...lol

Anyways, here's to the competition... ...

I woke up at 12pm. Didn't really have a good night's sleep which must have been due to anxiety i guess....lol Anyways, I had to go and get flowers for my partner to put in her hair so i called my mom who was at the market to help me. In de end, she got pink carnations and my kiasu grandma plucked like some other flowers from our house. When i finally got all of the flowers together, there were like red, purple, yellow, white and pink flowers!!! Machiam going to temple to offer flowers lidat...wahahahaha

We decided to meet at yishun mrt at 4pm. By 4.30, sondha, clarence and i had already finished eating at yoshinoya but elieen was nowhere to be found. Apparently, she was rushing down after getting her hair done (i must say her hair was not bad.... very sparkly...hahahahah)....

Upon elieen's arrival, we took off to orchird country club in a cab. By the time we got there, it was just after 5pm. We started to get changed and stuff. For the competition, i decided to keep it simple and decided to go wif a rolled up black shirt, black pants and a silver tie. I guess i looked pretty ok... until... .... .... THE MAKE UP WENT ON!!!!!... GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

One last look at young before the application of ghastly make up... lol

Let me tell you. Make up isnt meant for guys (normal straight heterosexual males... none of those metrosexual crap too) under normal circumstances. Only under very extreme and dire situations, should they be subjected to the torture of cosmetics.

The only thing that i have ever put on my face was yucky camo cream in the army. It came in 2 colours. Black and green. It felt uncomfortable putting green and black on my face. I thought that i was bad enuff to put on camo little did i noe that putting on make up would be worst...wahahah. CAmo came in 2 colours... make up came in like... a GAZILLION colours!!!!!! OMG!!!!

Slow painful torture

I went under the knives... erm brushes of elieen, sherv and sonn. They put alien stuff like foundation, blusher and lip gloss on my face.... It felt downright WIERD and GAY lah... !@#$!@$!... ... Anyways after the make over i turned out like this ...

ZHENG ZHENG ZHENG.... I hear screams already....

I seriously looked damn gay lor... My lips were like small pouty and red... EEEW....wahahahaha. Soon, i was melting away... literally... So was my make up...wahahahaha

Anyways, it seemed to me that salsa dancers (those at the competition at least), wore only 3 colours... red, silver and black....wahahahahaha. Like some sort of unwritten rule that says "Yer only a salsa dancer....... IF YOU WEAR RED,SILVER OR BLACK!" lol... Seriously like some sort of uniform lidat...wahahah.

Black and silver

Silver, black and red

Black and silver

Red, black and silver

Black, red and silver... you get my point...hahahah

Besides, we were way way way underdressed compared to the ball room dancers who came in all sorts of funky colours and eye catching costumes. We seriously looked rather shabby compared to them....lol

Anyways, we went in to watch den competiton and i must say that ballroom dancing is very different compared to salsa. All of dem are very stiff. Even for dances like jive and rock and roll which are supposed to be more energetic were stiff and not as impactful as salsa.

However, even having said so, i must say that i was very impressed by their poise, grace confidence, expression, body movement and feel. Even the kids were very nice to watch too... They were bubbling over with energy and oozing with cuteness...lol

Of all de dances, the 2 dances that i enjoyed de most were pase boble and tango. These two dances are very impactful and yet graceful at the same time. If the dancers managed to find that perfect balance of grace and energy ( many did...lol), the dance would be mind blowing..lol

Anways back to us... ... we were slowly getting pumped up with adrenalin. Soon, we reported to the event staff and got ready to enter the floor. We went round wishing each other luck, slapping each other on the back. By the time we were lining up to enter the floor, i could literally hear my heart beating....lol.

When we finally entered the floor, I started to feel very nervous. Everything started to tense up (think straight r...lol). All i could think of was "Oh shit.. oh shit.. oh shit...." ... wahahahah. My palms were sweaty and stuff... Really reminds me of that eminem song from 8 miles...lol

The music went on and we just started to move lor... I was so nervious that i think i screwed up abit...wahahah. It went much better during practice...hahahaha. I realised that my timing bwang abit and got a few mistakes...lol. Well no choice lor... just continue and try to do my best....

After the dance i asked sherv how it went. She said that she also blanked out and just followed me. Many of the rest felt de same too. I guess it's the stress of competition....lol

I was feelin glad that it was over but at the same time i was rather dissapointed that i screwed up. We went away and watched the rest of the competition with heavy hearts. We were fearing the worst.

After quite a while, we were called out to await our placing.It was really a moment of gloom for us all. Soon. they started to announce our placing... Name after name, couple after couple. As the placing went on, we felt more and more relieved. Soon 4th placing was announced.... IT WASN'T US!!!!! WE WERE 3RD!!!!!WAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I was so happy from screwing up and expecting the worst, we had gotten 3rd!!!! wad a relief!!!hahahah. We went to collect our medals wif glee. I was sooooooo happy when we stepped on the stands and had our photos taken!!!! What an experience!!!!! Yay!!! I was over the moon...wahahahahahaha!!!

Moment of glory... I was in estasy

The man that made it all possible for us

Great friend, loyal fan...lol

With the winning couple

At this moment in time, i'd like to sincerely thank the following who have walked with us and greatly helped us along on our journey. This award goes out to u guys too. You guys made it possible.

1) Dear ol' buddy jwo. Thanks so much for helping us logistically, providing us a nice cave to meditate in and for being such a great buddy, standing by me and listening to my rantings time and time again. You rock man!!!

2) Shervonne, partner in crime, for giving it all you've got even though u have studies to manage too. I couldn't ask for more....

3) Clarence, sondha and elieen, for listening to my nonsence and also giving us tips and pointers on how to improve. More importantly for being such great friends and standing by us all the way :D

4) My parents for putting up with my numerous late nights dancing!!!

5) Corina, for spending time givingus sound advice on how to sharpen our moves and getting our act together and helping us out in so many other ways.

6) Greg, Raymond and many other everyone else who have helped us with valuable advice, guidance and kind words.

7) Last but not the least, Jackson!!! for starting, guiding and grooming us along our salsa journey. You made it happen for us all! Thank you so much!!!

Oh wells, the salsa competition's finally over. Time to look for more trouble to get into...wahahahah

:p

The pioneer batch of dancesport salsa dancers