My very first Hip Hop instructor was Mr Patrick Loo. I started to learn Hip Hop after my 'A' Levels while waiting to go into NTU. It was at a weird place to learn dance- Amore Fitness! When it was time to start uni studies, I had to bid farewell to dance, so I wrote a card to Patrick, saying how much I love his dance classes, and wrote my email address to keep in contact (heard he told others I idolize him a lot! hehe.. which is true la). I was really sad coz NTU seemed like a super boring place to me and I wouldn't have time to do other stuff like dance. Then there was an ECA fair during the 1st week of school, so I joined NTU Modern Jazz Club, aka MJ.
I love MJ (I got popular coz I was the only gutsy one to do a hip hop solo=D), and the best thing was, the committee managed to get Patrick to teach us! Yeah!! Yippee! and I didn't have to pay for classes. Soon after, what followed throughout my NTU years was competitions, performances, and my brief but memorable 3-month scholarship @ Jitterbugs Swingapore.
My dance skills improved quite a lot through 11 hours of dance and of course endless crunches and stretching @ Jitterbugs. And yet, I was at an emotional low during that period. I remembered telling Fen that I had to stop coz I was having trouble passing my school modules. There were lots of other reasons as well. I felt tired shuttling between Orchard and Boon Lay most of the time; I felt miserable being among the weakest of the lot; and I couldn't face the rejection if they "fire" me from the scholarship during the evaluation which was coming soon. After writing the resignation letter, I left and cried all the way from the studio to Somerset MRT station. Studies seemed like an obligation, dance is something I enjoy yet difficult to master. I felt I couldn't multi-task with both dance and studies. The good part about leaving the scholarship was that I got back on track with my studies, and of course, I got together with Mornin, who loves dancing too! =)
Other than dancing, I got to experiment with choreography and mixing music (kudos to DJ Funky T!). There was a Masquerade event for entry into MJ, so I choreographed a 1-min piece. It was so much more fun than schoolwork. I've also choregraphed for Hall mass dances, Hall beauty pageant contestants, and MJ's competition pieces. I was proud of every piece of choreography I created, sometimes a bit too proud that ego got in the way and there was conflict among team members. There's a precious lesson in every step of this journey.
DaNceTitUde 2003 was my most memorable dance experience during my 4 years at NTU. Library scene rocks! After finally graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, I thought that was it for my dance journey-- byebye Dance, and Hello to Work life. Until Patrick invited both Mornin and myself to join United Groovers (UG), a premier Hip Hop dance crew comprising of Hip Hop dancers from NTU, NUS, other tertiary institutions and dance studios. We also put together an alumni's Geek Vs Mean Girls scene @ DaNceTitUde 2005! Best item ever for me! Though UG's life was brief, I found more hip hop dance friends, and life became much more interesting with more performances (Hoobastank's pre-concert @ Sentosa!), competitions and even teaching stints @ community centres as cover instructor.
So far, I've been taking Patrick's Hip Hop classes, and Lyrical Hip Hop @ Oschool. Next year's going to be a more exciting year @ECNAD's Dance Explorer Programme.
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