i don't know what to post.. so i decided to post one of my assignments which is a written report on "Dance as My Career".. i hope it does make a difference.. especially to my fellow troupe members.. not that i'm boasting myself.. but words deep in my heart..I first started out learning Chinese Dance at the age of 14. Years by years, I started loving it as a part-time dancer because I was still schooling at that time. Until this year, when I found out that the school registering for SYF Chinese Dance Competition dropped from 100 over to 50 plus school. And at the same time, registrations for Modern Dance increased tremendously, and most of them are hip-hop dances because I was there watching.
It is a pathetic trend that shows Singaporeans are neglecting the beauty of Chinese Dance. They are not aware of what a treasure it is which our ancestors left for us, it’s just like many Chinese in Singapore do not appreciate the Chinese Language. There’s an article reporting on which are the dance styles that the teenagers now favored, and most of them chose hip-hop as it is groovy and young, whereas Chinese Dance is more “outdated” and “old-fashioned”. Due to this, The Chinese Dance Association held a “Save Chinese Dance in Singapore” meeting this year and invited all well-known resident Chinese Dancers and Choreographers to this talk.
I had a very good opportunity in June this year to go to China to learn Chinese Ethnic Dance. My teacher in China is very knowledgeable; he knows everything about that particular ethnic dance, including where the people live, how they behave and their beliefs. This is when I decided to choose dance as my career; to focus on Chinese Dance and at the same time, learn other dance styles to expand my vocabulary so as to bring out the beauty of Chinese Dance and to keep improving to match the taste of the modern community.
I was given a chance recently to choreograph a dance, and I was thinking of choreographing a Chinese Contemporary, depicting a waterfall. However, I was being driven back by the fact that my vocabulary is not enough, like elements of Chinese Dance, and also the choreography skill. Unlike the elements of Chinese Dance which I learnt before, no one has ever taught me choreography. Therefore, I was being criticized by my artistic director on my first try, that the movements that I choreographed looks a bit like daily exercise during basic training.
From there, I realized the linkage between dance and real life, the difference between moving and performing. It’s just like capturing moments of familiarity and symbolizations, like several similar poses with a formation which makes the whole thing looks like a flower, especially it’s a scene of nature, so that the audiences knows what are you trying to convey. It’s kind of easy to understand, but a different story when you tried to carry out. So, I changed my idea and choreograph a totally different dance: a Contemporary Chinese Dance Drama, showing one who is having a nightmare. It’s a lot easier for me as I’ve learnt how to build a character in a story before.
To me, dance is an art form which expresses what one wants to express. However, knowing how to dance alone is not enough. You have to be observant during daily life to know the nature of humans and the environments, cinematic skills help too as it often triggers you with some inspiration to make your dance look more 3- dimensional. Sister arts like painting, poetry, music, martial arts are also some of the sources that help you to nurture your artistic senses. Not to mention learning other dance styles to increase your dance vocabulary. All these help to bring more variety and changes to dance, because dance always depicts things that are real and solid, and the world is ever-changing. Dances which did not achieve that failed in choreography, and most of the time, the lack of good dancers.
To sum up, dance has indeed brought me to a new stage of my life, which is to experience life. She also brought me a lot of friends who are just as passionate as me to work hard together. It’s very tough in life to find someone to have the same interests as yourself and to encourage each other during the encounters of difficulty, because only dancers can understand dancers’ pain, as well as joy.
things might not be done the way you decide.. but you decide the way things to be done..
