Marzipan : Recital Weekend

Hey guys, i know its a little late to post a weekend reflection, although the next weekend is just around the corner...hahah... But the past weekend was really a backtoback weekend of performances!!!

First off, on fri i went to catch Temasek Poly's GEM5: The Labyrinth.

The cool thing about TPDE's concerts are that they always stick to a centralized theme. So you can always expect to follow a plot! This year, it was about a Big bully (Hazrul :P) who managed to turn over a new leaf. This year had much more breaking elements thrown in, perhaps due to the influence of Floor Technics Crew and their members in TPDE. Very interesting to see how TPDE style would be re-influenced and evolve in the near future! Also, some nice props graced the stage such as the human-birdcage-lamps and the crazy pipe tree. :):) Lovely...maybe could be a whole item itself nexttime! Popping item was a different too! Nice play of the story :) Goodjob all you TPDE guys!

Next up, on Sat i caught KOOL AND THE GANG! WHoooooot...at the Esplanade Concert Hall. They were in town for the Mosaic Music Festival. There are alot of hot acts in town for this festival, so guys go check it out yeah! You dont wanna miss it! www.mosaicmusicfestival.com

What can i say? It was definitely a FUUUUUUNNNNKKKKYYY night! We sat at the last row on top, straight in the middle! So we had all the action and space to dance...hahaha...shake that asss!!! Ceeeeeellllaaabrate good times CMon!!!

For all those who missed it, too bad...hahaha but this is their second time in Singapore, So my gut feeling is they will come back again, and dont miss it this time! (Oh yes, to add, even our Taiwanese locker friends Aga,Boui and Xiao Zhang came down...Xiao Zhang came to Singapore mainly for this concert!!)

Lastly, on Sun i went to catch Flair Nation's production. It was a collaboration between them and Luminique Bboy crew. I must say im very very proud of them being the first independent production of this scale!! It was a really cozy environment with good food, snacks and dance!! First time watching a production with nasi lemak and snacks provided! whooot!! hahaha and sometimes a few balloons might drop by for souveniors. The performances were great, with alot of versatility in the dances, many genres were covered that night from Jazz contemporary to Krump....hahah what a range... Keep a lookout for this Crew/fam as they will be bound to make waves in the dance scene.

I would like to say again, Good job to all dancers and performers !!! Keep Singapore on its feet and go spread the LOVE for dance!!

-Marzipan

LOCKDOWN 2010

Hey guys! It's been one week since Lockdown 2010...
And I was thinking randomly about the current Locking scene, so I wanted to take the chance to post my thoughts about the event...



Firstly, Lockdown is the first locking event in the past 2 years.

It started off with Ian(Chunky) organizing a solely-locking dance battle event, which was held in NYP Blk E studio, with K-Lock, Fong, and Cee Kay being the judges. I still remember being a contestant at that time, and Jin (my partner) just started locking for 3 months or so (because he was watching Show Luo on TV)

And 2 years later, the both of us (Lock Out Loud) are actually on the judge panel, along with Aga and Boui from the Swift Lockers (Taiwan, Max Studio), looking at the younger batch of dancers dancing against each other, and showing everyone the best that they can possibly do. It's really been a long journey.


THEN THEN THEN THEN THEN!
Firstly, a big thank you to Aga and Boui for coming down all the way from Taiwan to support the locking scene in Singapore. You guys have inspired not only the dancers who join the battle, but everyone who was there at the event.

I would like to share a quote that I remembered Aga telling everyone after the top 16 battles.

"Open your heart to the music, not your mind."

Sometimes, dancers spend much time trying to think of moves to follow the music, and they end up anticipating the beats and stuff like that. I feel that dancers should firstly learn how to enjoy the music first, because that's the reason why we wanna start dancing. In addition, Aga also mentioned about trying not to listen to the same piece of music too many times, because then it becomes memorizing the song, and you're not dancing to the songs but rather dancing to what you memorized in the song.

To sum it up, basics and techniques are the fundamentals of dance. Do not forget them, and keep practising them as if you are never good enough to master the technique. Dance to songs that you enjoy, be it popping, locking, hip hop, house, or other genres of songs. Never dance without the music, because that would be just practising steps. "Dancing is moving along to the music, not memorizing steps and executing them along with the music."

Next, I'd like to thank all the people who came down for the event. You guys made the event possible, and without you guys supporting the event, it would not have been a success. At the same time, I'd like to take the chance to credit Sha and Mel for pushing their juniors to join. We had a number of SDZ representatives for Lockdown this year, and we had a representative, Wei Sheng, who made it all the way to the finals against Diane. Good job! Keep it up!

Last but not least, i'd like to thank the people who helped out for the event. They are namely Dj Smoke, Ian(Chunky), Michael, Fong, Kenneth, Jin, Ceekay, Mian Bao, and the videographer (who was it i cant remember sorry). And definitely not forgetting the support we had from Ben, Elke, Chris, and the Malaysian lockers who came down to support the event! We'll definitely be looking forward to the next Lockdown *everyone looks at Ceekay*

Here's the link for the showcase that we did with Aga and Boui. Do check it out! LINK

Last but not least, R16 South East Asia Urban Arts Festival will be held in SG! Do check it out @ http://r16southeastasia.ning.com, registration is $20 per category. There's 1-on-1 popping, locking, beatboxing, and 2-on-2 breaking! Or similarly, just type R16 on Facebook, you'll be able to find it :D















(left to right) Ceekay, Jin, Boui, Kenneth















Everybody goinng 'OUHHH~' with Fong on the floor















Here is the muscle woman, Diane















Aga announcing the winner (Diane vs Wei Sheng)

Marzipan Small Talk

Was just "day" dreaming awhile ago about those times when i just started popping, and how we(PAP) and the likes, used to hang out, used to be groupies...haha...those were the days. In an incredibly small popping scene back then, all we had were each other. All we knew were the poppers in Studio Wu. Back in those days, and up till somewhere in 2008, poppers still wore hush puppies, wore either dockers/dickies, wore baggy oversized Tees, wore cheap fedoras (except i liked to wear that hugeass straw hat) and carried or tried to carry Gregory/Northface Bags. As well as the early Carhartt sweatpants craze!!! Haha...Oh and michael aka Prince Jack swears by nike!

So if there was ever a history about popping culture in Singapore, that would do it for the fashion side..lol...nowadays its Puma clydes and Adidas Stan smiths/Superstars. And Chucks...oh yessss Chucks...gotta love em...Cheap and Great!!! For those of you who are wondering what are Chucks, its your standard run of the mill converse sneakers :)

For some, those baggy tees morphed to something more fitted, those baggy pants became baggy jeans and soon became fitted jeans....Those loud prints n colours too, soon toned down... Maybe its the shift of "culture" or just the blending into Singapore's regular crowd as everyone got older... Hahaha

Well, music, fashion, style, dance, and mentality have all changed. Lets see where itll take us! Exciting!

-Marzipan

Food For Thought : Knowledge and Teaching

Just a personal reflection....While thinking about how we learn and the different knowledge that has been going around, Ive realized that the story is always told from different point of views, each almost as equally biased. BUT, Facts never lie or never tell stories...so i guess its best to just rely on those :)

One point id like to bring up is that, What does it take to be a good teacher?

Skills? Well yeah skills matter to a certain extent, as you cannot teach what you do not know. So with that in mind, yeah you can be a great teacher and teach 100% but you can only teach so much.. For example, if you know only 1 chapter of math, but you teach it damn well, you are a good teacher but you only know chapter 1....whereas if you knew the whole book, and you dont really teach very well, you are considered a not-very-good instructor.....but is it really fair to see it this way? Im sure you have to balance both out :)

Perspective. One thing i always stress on is perspective. When you teach, while its good to teach in your own opinions, you should always give a third party or neutral/non-biased form of information to your students. NEVER SAY THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT OR YOU CANNOT DO THIS N THAT. If you have to advise a student against doing something, tell him the real facts, and then tell them that maybe this can be done as a variation or something new etc etc...If everyone said that hiphop can only be downbeat....then u will see great singapore workout instead of hiphop dancers.

That is why, being a teacher is giving your students their direction and freedom of growth. It is nurturing them into their potential, rather than teaching them rules and making them slaves.

If you dont educate your students openly, they will never grow as much as they could or they will be equally as closed minded as yourself, and the scene wont grow.

Lastly, Attitude. The most important aspect of Staying a teacher. lol. Attitude is what makes you survive the lousy days, the bad days, and keeps you going, staying true to why you want to teach. Teaching for fame is a wrong way to go and fame will teach you a lesson one day. Teach because you like to teach, not because you feel that you are good enough to teach or feel that you want to be recognized :)

Yeah nowadays alot of new dancers are getting teaching opportunities and please, remember to ask yourself alot of questions like those above. You may think you are helping the scene but you MIGHT just do the other way around. That is why teaching is a scary burden...bear it before you take the step.

-Marzipan

Post FTL 2010 interview with AKA KIN

Part 1 of a 3-part post-FTL2010 mini-interview series.

AKA KIN


Keep it real.

Peace.