Dance Fest

Can you spot me?



Thanks Nick for the video.

The Awakening

(Photo taken from http://www.amriteswarifoundation.org/Awakening/home.htm)

About 2 weeks back, I made a last minute decision to watch The Awakening at the Planery Hall, KLCC Convention Hall. I wanted to get the RM138 tickets but only left single seats. No choice but to purchase RM98 seats.

It's really amazing to see how they are able to dance with "feel" even though they are not able to hear anything. They rely on 2 conductors for the dance beats. Definately not easy.

Other than the Chinese performers, there were also some local performances from the OKU (Orang Kurang Upaya) groups. They did put up a great show. However, since the local performances were slotted in between the Chinese performances, the "gap" of the level of performance was really huge.

One thing I notice about the difference between KLCC Planery Hall and Istana Budaya is the style of Management! First of all, the staffs or the usherers did not do their homework, bringing guests to the wrong section of the seats. There was one uncle who actually scolded the male usherer "Just to let you know that you are not doing your job right!" His was furious that the usherer took led him to walk a big round to his seat, then U-turn and took the other way.

2ndly, at the back of the ticket clearly stated that no protography is allowed in the hall. Not only that they did not stop ppl from taking photos, but one of the staffs was taking photos with her digicam!!! Aisehman....

3rdly, they allow late comers.

4thly, many ppl were walking in and out of the hall, going to the toilet. It was so annoying lo. It happened especially when the local groups were performing. It gave me the impression that these ppl were here just for the "Thousand-Hand Guan Yin" dance.

5thly, mobile phone were ringing here and there! There was an uncle, who talked loudly in the hall, "Hello, ngo yan kan call fan lei". If want to return call later then return later la. But he kept talking and talking.

Is it that difficult to sit down, relax and enjoy the dance performance? Sigh....

Rumba Dance??!!

Some may know that we (Selangor Dancing Group) are preparing for the Dance Fest. At first, I was not one of the performers and since I have stopped dancing for quite sometime, I plan to leave it that way la. But recently due to lack of male dancers in the group, I might have to perform after all. Well, I'm ok with performing wan but it's RUMBA!!!!!

haha.... I don't have experience in Rumba other than learning the basics like few years ago. Some more, during that part, only me and my partner will be performing on stage. Btw, she's good in Latin Dance lo and I'm ..... no where near her skills. keke....

It's gonna be a huge challenge ahead, with only 1 and half months left before the actual day.

Btw, before dancing Rumba, I got to dance Rock 'n Roll too. I tried few steps a couple of weeks ago but I injured myself when I tried to flip my partner. haha... funny la...

Hopefully I can pull this off on 'd' day :)

More info about the dance fest soon...

Sungai Klah Hot Spring Sungkai, Perak

Recently, a group of us went to the Sungkai Hotspring for an away-from-town holiday.

But before that, we headed to Ipoh to meet up with KC for breakfast, then back south to Gopeng coz we wanted to visit the Gua Tempurung. Post about Gua Tempurung later la.

I believe some of you may have seen the photos of the Hotspring via some sites or forwarded emails. So, will not post it now. Instead, I'm posting the newly launched hotel right beside the hotspring park.

2-storey hotel

At the back of the hotel

More hotel pics

Double bed room

Twin bed room

Fridge, etc

Small lil TV. We brought PS2 and DVD player but end up only Siang played the PS2.

Coffee table. Tesco products not included. haha...

There's a SPA Village

There are ppl taking photos... hehe. Nicky and KC...

Water fountain

Well, the hotel was recently launched in early Sept if I'm not mistaken. So it's still very new. However, the only complain is the Shower. The button to switch the water to come out from the shower head or the bathtub tap was not working for our rooms. We had to press like few thousand times before the water comes out continuously from the shower head. Asked for help at the help desk, "oh, kita sudah panggil kontraktor untuk tukar. Tapi dia belum buat." Huh? Like that also can?

Once everything is settled, we headed to the park la. We drove to the main entrance. The counter officer asked whether we are the hotel guests, coz she said there's a short walkway from hotel to the park. kua kua kua.....

Anyway, the hotel rate is RM165 for 1 room with either twin bed or double bed. Inclusive of tax, 2 entry tickets (for 2 days) to the park and breakfast for 2. According to them, this is the promotion price. Normal price is about 180 i think. Btw, they also have bungalows for like 400-800 per night depending on the size and day of staying. Weekends are like RM200 more expensive.

Resv num: 05-4388803

Anyone interested to visit this place?

Some photos

Added some photos on http://dancinggroup.blogspot.com.

Very busy lately.... no time to update this blog tim...

So You Think You Can Dance Malaysia Season 2

I had been following the development of each episodes for this season's show. Well, not exactly all the episodes la. But beginning from episode 5. This was when my friend told me that our Friend was one of the contestants.

I went to watch one of the shows Live at Ruums KL and experience was cool. As Ruums is not that big, we get to watch the performance up close. Therefore, any mistakes made by the contestants were very obvious comparing to watching it on TV. Also, those cameramen tend to shoot the show "creatively" by moving about, zoom in and out, shake a bit, etc. Very the dizzy lo. I'd suggest to the producers for any dance performance to refrain their cameramen from shooting it with their so-called creative style.

Ok, let's talk about the program. Each episodes, each pair of contestants are required to perform based on the selected dance choreography. I still do not know how this works, whether they randomly pick the choreographies for the contestants, lucky draw, producers-pick, etc? Anyone can shed a light on this?

Choreography is very important for the contestants' survival in this show. If you are unlucky and got a bad choreography, then probably you will be going down to bottom 6. The judges will not say it's a bad choreography in front of the audience and also the choreographers. But probably they will say the contestants did not bring out the best in them and not able to bring out the "feel" they wanted.

I'll skip the rest of the top 20 and will share a bit of how i felt towards the final 4. The Grand Finals was held last Friday and the final 4 are Hong, CC, Black and Sim.

Quick intro, Hong is a Fitness and Dance Instructor. His dance specialty is Commercial Dance.

CC, a student and her specialties are Latin and Ballet.

Black, a freelance dancer and his specialty is Hip Hop.

Sim, a full-time professional dancer and her specialty is Contemporary.

Who did I support? hmm.... From episode 5, I supported Hong! haha.... sure u should've guessed by now that he's a friend of mine. I got to know Hong from SGM.

Anyway, based on the whole season, it's very difficult to come out with the top dancer in terms if SKILLS. I would rate the top 3 as Hong, Black and Sim.

Why not CC? Well, if you follow this season 2's shows, you'll realized that she's very strong in Latin and .....and.... that's it! I'm not saying she's not good in other dances, but just not as good as the other 3.

From what I saw, Hong is good with most of the dance genres as he's a Commercial Dancer. He has to know all sorts of dances. What I like about Hong is that his dance steps are "sharp", "light" and good with expressions. As for Black, he's creative and very good in Hip Hop. Sim gave us a surprise with her solo during the finals. She performed contemporary dance and what she did was quite risky because contemp is not everyone's cup of tea.

And the results?

Very disappointing!!

Very "glass dropping"!!!

Haha... it was CC!!

Erm.... after the results were revealed, we were like "huh?", "meh sih?", "y la?"

To me, it was totally unexpected as I was expecting one of the top 3 I mentioned earlier. Go to 8TV's Link and read the comments. You'll understand what I', talking about.

3 Judges have their own pick and Ramli picked Sim, Judimar picked Hong and Pat picked CC. But it was quite obvious that Pat likes CC and named her the "dancing queen" in the earlier episodes.

Anyway, please bear in mind that this competition is based on votes. Therefore, the winner is Malaysia's FAVOURITE dancer and not TOP dancer.

Well, she has many supporters who sent sms to vote her and probably she was able to present well in the Q&A session that prompted more people to vote for her.

To me, I'd still prefer a dancer that is versatile enough who can perform well in all sorts of dances and not just one (or maybe two la).

Anyway, congrats to the top 4 as it's not easy to be top 4. Hopefully there's no "drop eye-glasses" in the next season.

Cheers :)

Beware of SMS Scam

Please ignore any sms that says that you have won a sum of money and asks you to call the provided phone number. The provided number is normally an international number.

Here's what I received 2 days ago.

"Maklumat! dari SHELL Mlys. Anda tlh berjaya Memenangi Caj tunai RM17.000, Sila dial No'telipon Office:00628161108672 Penghantar:Shell Malaysia."

Would you believe such message? Are we still using the word talipon? I thought Caj (Charge) is where we have to pay? Anyway, not important. Most important is that we don't be greedy and fall for such scams.

The provided mobile number should originates from Indonesia. Refer here or here.

If it's from Shell Malaysia, why would someone calls you from Indonesia?

Here's today's news from TheStar;

Friday July 25, 2008

Beware of SMS scam, warns Shell

PETALING JAYA: Fake SMS messages purportedly from Shell Malaysia are being circulated around the country.

The text messages tell the receivers that they have won prizes from Shell.

In a statement, Shell said the public should ignore the messages as the company did not use text messages to communicate with its contest winners. It said the list of winners was available on its website, www.shell.com.my, and they would also receive a phone call informing them of their win by a Shell-appointed agency.

The winner's name, MyKad number and address will be verified by the agency.

“Shell does not require any bank account number. If in doubt, please check on the website to ensure you are indeed a Shell contest winner,” the statement said.

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/25/nation/21916194&sec=nation