Smoke gets in your eyes.
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She is unpredictable, frequent moodswings. Sometimes she’s nice, and sometimes she’s not.
Her name is Yan Ying. 90% of the world can’t pronounce it properly, simple as it seems. But no one really cares so they just call her YY. She is not fond of people with the same name as her. She turns 14 on 6th September and she loves her birthday cause it is a sex symbol. She was from Yew Tee Primary and is still proud of her school. She will never forget the class of 6D’07, or the batch of P6’07. She is currently an idiot in Nanyang Girls High and it is a love-hate relationship. She belongs to 202’09 which she, to be honest, doesn’t feel much for. She is a Theatre Club girl and is more than proud to be one. She especially loves Emo Batch♥, and looks forward to devoting her next 3 years to TCN with much optimism. She does ballet with more than just passion but she can’t do a center split. She is trying her best and is currently aiming for a far-fetched distinction for Grade6. She loves hiphop just as much though she’s pretty new at it. Her favourite sport is swimming and she occasionally plays basketball as a form of stress-relief. She likes to be tan and loves her swimming tan line. The piano, is yet another love-hate relationship. Like most teenagers, her hobbies include MSNing, blogging, and youtubing and facebooking. She loves shopping and doing random stuff like gaying people, jumping over railings, walking in the rain, and having completely irregular sleeping hours. Unlike most teenagers, she thinks that rap music is trash. She also thinks that she is getting old cause she hates the songs the average listens to these days. She can’t explain her love for oldies, country music, ballads, and sentimentals. Nostalgic songs are the best. Her favourite bands are Michael Learns to Rock, The Beatles and Westlife. She loves too many singers to name them all. “Forevers” are bullshit as of now. The night speaks to her the way no one else can. Her favourite thing to do is to curl up with a book on a rainy afternoon in her room, where she feels safest in. Her favourite flower is a black rose, but on the contrary, she likes rainbows and hugs too. She is always torn between two. But she is determined when she sets her mind on something, so she wants the world to shut up and believe in her. Just watch.Tag
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Saturday, September 12, 2009, 11:59 PM
do it big, do it right, and do it with style.
When the blue night is over my faceon the dark side of the world in space
When I'm all alone with the stars above
you are the one I love
Blue Night reminds me most of MLTR's concert. Jascha said something along the lines of, "Today's a wonderful night, and we're all very glad to be able to perform here in Singapore.." It really was a wonderful night, and with that heartwarming song plus incredible atmosphere, I was frantically finding any possible way to keep that moment in time. But all good things come to an end.
I guess the post concert blues have more or less died down, though I'm still listening to their songs and only their songs, I've given up picturing every detail of that night in my mind because it's getting quite impossible. Funnily enough it's their less famous songs I'm looping now, and boy they are addictive! And they make me very happy.. Can't believe I've never heard them before. It's like all their songs are freaking nice to me.
Crazily awesome.
/.
Genée International Ballet Competition. Shall I just repeat once again how fortunate and grateful I am for the opportunity to watch both semi-finals on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as the finals today. If I had to summarize everything into one word it would be "inspiring".
I think what I'm going to blog next is mainly for myself (and YK perhaps), doubt you'll be interested. Now this is really blogging for myself and the sake of reading it years down the road.
The results were rather predictable, golds and silvers at least - it was very obvious who were the cream of the crop. Gold medals were Claudia Dean (7) and Paul Russell (55), Silver were Nicola Wills-Jones (44) and Daniel Roberge (54), can't remember who's the bronze girl but the guy's Takeaki Miura (53). I was deliberating between Claudia Dean and Paul Russell for audience choice because their performances today were spectacular. Voted the latter in the end, but the former won. I'm guessing she must be the happiest girl alive now to be able to go home with two awards. (:
Was on the edge of my seat throughout the competition today, pity the person beside me was sleeping very soundly. And on Thursday we asked her countless times if she could sell her ticket to YK/Vanessa (who were dying to go) but she was stubborn and didn't agreed. Going for this with someone who does not have the same passion is as good as going alone, because she does not share your excitement. It was so weird sharing my thoughts with her like how I did with YK and Vanessa, such that I just stopped and barely even acknowledged her existence. Not that she cared anyway.
I know the dances are repetitive but the dancers presented them with different styles, and that's what you're there to see. I mean don't you know this is a competition? I just hated that bored look she had on her face throughout. Nevermind.
A little bit on the semi finals on Thursday. Two girls fell. One of them forgot her steps halfway through (probably nervous breakdown or something), stoned on stage with this crumpled face, and then went on dancing. But when she did she slipped and fell. It was horrible because she had to continue the rest of the dance with humiliation and dashed hopes, in front of the audience who obviously saw everything. I was looking at her face in hope that she will not start crying on stage and hoping that she will get through the rest of the dance successfully.
Because on Thursday I was seated somewhere on the second level where I had a good view of stage right backstage, I saw her sitting alone and letting the reality sink in. In fact I think I missed three-quarter of the next ballerina's performance because I was too focused on the girl who fell, thinking how devastated she must be feeling right at that moment. I swear it was such an awful thought because that's about the worst thing that can happen to you while dancing on stage.
The other girl who fell went on over pointe or something and fell flat on her body, face first. I really cannot imagine that instant after she fell, of how she must be registering the fall in her mind and feeling that it's the end of the world. Thank goodness the audience was very supportive, clapping very loudly and encouragingly at the end of their performances. It helped, but it couldn't reverse things.
Found this poem by random and I think it's very real.
On Witnessing a Ballerina Fall
During a Performance of "Nutcracker"
Somebody's daughter, a ballerina,
fell--
hit the stage hard
with her thin, delicate elbow.
Two-thousand eyes witnessed and pitied.
There was an audible, collective gasp.
I imagined this adolescent ego
like a big beautiful red circus balloon
bursting into a million small pieces--
as if tiny particles of her soul covered the stage,
like a blizzard of snowflakes.
She will not forget this day.
Time and time again
she will feel her elbow hit the stage,
like a terrible mantra--
Over and over again
she will feel the air explode from her perfectly round red
balloon
like a silent bomb detonating.
December 2002
Ellen Marie Walker, M.F.A., M.S., L.L.P.
The two accidents happened during their first dance (Commissioned Variations) which was "The Juggler". Super nice dance piece, I watched it for like 50 over times already and I still want to watch it again. For males they did "Hunting Song", quite nice too.
The candidates' second dance (19th Century Classical Repertoire Variations) captured more of the audiences' attention because of the beautiful/ costumes - they wore leotards and tights for the first - and also because they weren't all the same dance piece. Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire and Coppelia, so they didn't all do the same thing.
For males Daniel Roberge and Paul Russell did some damn cheeky dance, cuteness to the max. So based on their first and second dances, the numbers we betted on to get into the finals were 2, 7, 28, 44, 53, 54, 55 and yes they did! There were five others too, twelve in all, including the Singaporean Kwok Min Yi (18). Sneaked a couple of pictures, will post them up soon.
Here's a fuller review of the semi-finals, just found it and I totally agree: http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/happening/7403.html
And moving on to the finals. You could see the difference from the semi-finals because those who moved through to the finals were really better. Mostly perfect and controlled pirouettes, amazingly straight grand jetes (big leaps), seemingly effortless and high extensions, you get the point. Today they did the 20th Century Classical Repertoire Variation which they just learnt yesterday, as well as the Commissioned Variation and the 19th Century piece they performed for the semi-finals.
Actually I don't have much to elaborate - oh the 20th century male dances were adorable, the audience were alternating between laughing and wow-ing. And before they announced the results I too was feeling anxious for some unknown reasons. I guess that's about all, the experience was totally worth it and if Genee ever comes to Singapore again I'll be first to grab tickets. Just like if MLTR were to come again.
Oh yes and the passion thing for LA, it's Saturday and I haven't done shit about it yet. The way things are looking now I'm definitely doing something on ballet, heck if it's unique or not, heck if it's "something new about me" or not. Yes and it is ridiculous to judge passion or ability based on whether you are in a dance CCA or not (though yes, both Chinese and Modern dance in Nanyang are undeniably good) or how many times you publicly profess your love for it over MSN or Facebook. I don't do that alot and I don't intend on doing that. Sometimes who you have to dance for is only yourself, same for who needs to understand how passionate you are.
Of course I did think of doing MLTR, but doing on singers/bands is a little.. I don't know, weird? It's like using the LA SIA as a chance to promote your favourite blah blah blah. No offence to people doing it though, you can try to sway my views.
"Ballet is not just movement, not simply abstract. It’s something beautiful. Sometimes there’s this feeling in the movement that makes me want to cry." -Nina Ananiashvili, The Ballet Book. It's true especially the last sentence, really.
While watching the finals today I suddenly thought about this. How far would I lose touch from ballet in 20, no make it 10 years time? It's a very scary thought, knowing that as you get older your childhood and teenage passions will slowly fade away, because you won't have time anymore. Caught up in university studies, making a living, being successful, in the end entirely giving up on what you love doing right at this moment. Sad fact is that it's not like any other passion or hobby, for instance reading, which you can do anywhere, anytime, decades down the road.
I think I should really treasure the chance to do ballet now and make the best out of it. I probably don't look as good as others in a leotard, won't have a perfect figure forever, but I've promised not to let that get into my way, and so I'll make sure it doesn't. I know I'll have to work twice as hard as others to keep that distinction, because I don't live in an illusion that whatever I'm down with doesn't directly affect my techniques. At times I wonder if I would have done better if my spine was straighter (and about how bloody unfair it is of course), but wallowing in self-pity is shit stupid. Afterall since this is irreversible, the only possible way to achieve better results is to work harder. This and this are pretty interesting though, chanced upon them.
A friend once asked me what's the point of all these - ballet lessons and the effort, time, money you put in - since it's not like I'm going to do ballet in future. Well, it is impractical to want to make it big in the dance field unless you are exceptionally talented, which I'm not, and I know I obviously won't be pursuing a career in dance or other areas of the performing arts. I'm really the boring person who'll just sit in the office and work my ass off, though I'll try to bring that a step higher.. I want to go to New York!
Nahh not quite possible. Hmm why does the future already seem bleak, after the last chapter of epic mugging in university, I'm seeing myself rot in the office, five days a week from 9 to 5, returning home exhausted, continuing the next day, and the cycle continues. Running in circles and just waiting. What's the point, really? I really do feel trapped in Singapore though, claustrophobia's setting in.
Coming back, and in response to my friend, saying that it's useless is totally wrong. Ballet makes me happy, and that's enough reason for everything.
/.
You know what, I'll really have to delay tag replies again.