The Funk Factor
I have been selected to be Eel's partner in Waltz for the Concert item. The announcement was made on Saturday morning during the selections for the couple dance in Waltz during concert rehearsals.
My heart skipped a beat.
Eel is my partner in Waltz. The sentence kept repeating itself over and over in my head. For a long time now I've always wondered what it's like to partner Eel in social dance. Well, I will find out the answer very soon by next Tuesday when we start learning the routines for the Waltz item.
We caught "Shall We Dance" as a group yesterday after training and rehearsals were done and we were pretty impressed by Richard Gere's gracefulness. I'm pretty sure he must have practised a lot for this role and well, Eel and I were pretty much motivated by the movie as well so much that we kinda half waltzed and half walked our way out of the cinema.
We raised quite a few eyebrows.
Heck I didn't care, when I got home the first thing I did was I played Micheal Buble's "Sway" on my PC.
I started waltzing and turning to the music, just like in the movies. Can't wait for Tuesday, damn.
Funkamania XI finally ended on a high note on Friday night at Ngee Ann Civic Plaza. The champion team was called NRA. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know the full name myself.
Personally 2 teams caught my attention the most - Little White Riding Hood [Yes I know it sounds awfully cheesy] and not because my friends are in that team but for their amazing chereography of posing, popping, locking and stunts.
and another team called NRA: Manifesto. Their energy level was very distinct and their movements were synchronised to a T, sizzling with sexiness at some point.
Alright, in actual fact I was like wishing good luck to most teams. The Dance Community is not that big in Singapore anyway so it's not hard to know someone, either directly or indirectly, in the whole community. The Funkamania felt like one big gathering for all of us who were involved in dance activities.
Right, the judging criteria is as follows:
Hiphop Techniques - 30%
Chereography - 20%
Synchronisation - 15%
Costumes - 10%
Music - 10%
I can't remember the last 15% but I was convinced by the fact that if the team simply goes up to the stage and starts showcasing a synchronised chereography of breakdancing moves they would be crowned champions immediately.
I am not saying that hiphop dance competitions should not be placing emphasis on actual hiphop dance techniques as this is Funkamania after all and we can actually break it up into 2 meanings - Funky Madness or Madness of Funk.
How do you define a dancer as funky? Or being a mad one at the same time? Fred Astaire once described Michael Jackson as an "angry dancer" and that is perhaps one of the key elements that empowers a dancer with stage presence - The display of emotions on stage. Not just in facial expressions but the ability to communicate your emotions with the audience in thw way you dance. Like - When people look at your dance they too will feel the love, the sadness, the angst and the joy. So now there is the additional factor - the funk factor. When people look at the way you dance they just go "Wow" and well words like "That is sooooo cool!" are heaped as praises on your performances.
Which means there would be differing preceptions on how the audience would define a dancer as "Cool" for some would think that simply being able to do technical hiphop moves like pop and locking is cool while some prefer a short drama skit encompassed with facial expressions and highly-energetic dance movements would be cool. Can a dancer combine these two elements together for Funkamania? Perhaps that is why NRA was voted the best team by the judges.
Hmmm.. yes. Another new perspective to consider.
My heart skipped a beat.
Eel is my partner in Waltz. The sentence kept repeating itself over and over in my head. For a long time now I've always wondered what it's like to partner Eel in social dance. Well, I will find out the answer very soon by next Tuesday when we start learning the routines for the Waltz item.
We caught "Shall We Dance" as a group yesterday after training and rehearsals were done and we were pretty impressed by Richard Gere's gracefulness. I'm pretty sure he must have practised a lot for this role and well, Eel and I were pretty much motivated by the movie as well so much that we kinda half waltzed and half walked our way out of the cinema.
We raised quite a few eyebrows.
Heck I didn't care, when I got home the first thing I did was I played Micheal Buble's "Sway" on my PC.
I started waltzing and turning to the music, just like in the movies. Can't wait for Tuesday, damn.
Funkamania XI finally ended on a high note on Friday night at Ngee Ann Civic Plaza. The champion team was called NRA. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know the full name myself.
Personally 2 teams caught my attention the most - Little White Riding Hood [Yes I know it sounds awfully cheesy] and not because my friends are in that team but for their amazing chereography of posing, popping, locking and stunts.
and another team called NRA: Manifesto. Their energy level was very distinct and their movements were synchronised to a T, sizzling with sexiness at some point.
Alright, in actual fact I was like wishing good luck to most teams. The Dance Community is not that big in Singapore anyway so it's not hard to know someone, either directly or indirectly, in the whole community. The Funkamania felt like one big gathering for all of us who were involved in dance activities.
Right, the judging criteria is as follows:
Hiphop Techniques - 30%
Chereography - 20%
Synchronisation - 15%
Costumes - 10%
Music - 10%
I can't remember the last 15% but I was convinced by the fact that if the team simply goes up to the stage and starts showcasing a synchronised chereography of breakdancing moves they would be crowned champions immediately.
I am not saying that hiphop dance competitions should not be placing emphasis on actual hiphop dance techniques as this is Funkamania after all and we can actually break it up into 2 meanings - Funky Madness or Madness of Funk.
How do you define a dancer as funky? Or being a mad one at the same time? Fred Astaire once described Michael Jackson as an "angry dancer" and that is perhaps one of the key elements that empowers a dancer with stage presence - The display of emotions on stage. Not just in facial expressions but the ability to communicate your emotions with the audience in thw way you dance. Like - When people look at your dance they too will feel the love, the sadness, the angst and the joy. So now there is the additional factor - the funk factor. When people look at the way you dance they just go "Wow" and well words like "That is sooooo cool!" are heaped as praises on your performances.
Which means there would be differing preceptions on how the audience would define a dancer as "Cool" for some would think that simply being able to do technical hiphop moves like pop and locking is cool while some prefer a short drama skit encompassed with facial expressions and highly-energetic dance movements would be cool. Can a dancer combine these two elements together for Funkamania? Perhaps that is why NRA was voted the best team by the judges.
Hmmm.. yes. Another new perspective to consider.
posted by Inarticulate at 1:14 AM
1 Comments:
hiee.... for your infomation, found ya blog.... NRA stands for New Revolving Age... it is a hip hop dance group in Ngee Ann poly.. turning 4 years old soon... =) thanks for supporting us and seeing us as US and not wad ppl say us as "underhanded" =)
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