Prepping For Another Dance Competition

Week 1 of the 6-week school holidays just whirled past us. Alycia spent most of her days with her friends at their homes, cinema and malls. It's her last 'honeymoon year' in high school before her SPM next year.  Cass has been spending her days with her face buried in her novels, drawing papers and watching videos on You Tube. And I spent two days this week sitting at the dance studio for over 2 hours each session waiting for Sherilyn to learn a choreographed routine from a dance instructor from a well-known dance studio in Subang Jaya.  Our dancing queen will be competing in Asia Junior Got Talent this Sunday and this reality show will be screened on national TV soon!  This Sunday I will be camping at FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia) the entire day to give her my moral support.

First session at the studio:



Second and final session at the studio:


After 2.5 grueling hours of dancing non-stop on both days, we walked to the next road @ SS15's Bubble Tea Street for boba tea treat. I may be a  health freak but my ultimate kryptonite are 'kuih' and milk tea (sans the pearls) 😁 Almost every shop on that street sells bubble tea and we were left with the boba bombardment and couldn't decide which shop to walk into. At a glance, there are more than 15 bubble tea shops within walking distance from each other, vying for dominance and I wonder how each shop can stay afloat with such fierce competition. I wonder when the bubble tea bubble will burst.

On the first day, we settled for Black Whale and second day - Pin Tea.


I ordered a Milky Yam with no sugar and less ice from Black Whale while Sherilyn had milk tea (less sugar) with pearls.  With over 2 hours of dancing non-stop, she can afford the calories from the pearls. But I don't always allow her to order pearls with her milk tea.




Patrons will be given a free clear plastic transparent mini tote bag for take-away drinks, which keeps the cups in an upright position and ease of carrying. A single cup will be placed in a cutout paper carrier. I guess this feature gives The Black Whale the edge over other boba shops.


After the second dance class, we walked the Bubble Tea Street again and this time chose Pin Tea.
Pin Tea isn't exactly considered bubble tea as they don't sell pearls.  Sherilyn and I weren't exactly looking for milk tea, but for something healthier.  Pin Tea sells a wide selection of fruit teas using fresh fruits, they even load up their drinks with fresh fruit slices. Their drinks are packed with antioxidants, fibre, and Vitamin C.  I ordered Citrus fruits with jasmine tea (no sugar) which is very refreshing, not cloy unlike milk tea and has lesser calories.  Sherilyn ordered a strawberry milk shake.


I've signed up both Alycia and Sherilyn for a dance workshop scheduled to be held in 2 weeks' time at this dance studio and they can't wait to attend the workshop, conducted by competitive dance instructors from Singapore, Malaysia and Phillipines.

Do let me know if you or your kids are interested to attend this dance workshop and I'll PM you the details.

Dancing Queen

Dancing Queen made my time stand still for a frigging 10 minutes yesterday. When I went to fetch her from school in the evening, she was no where to be seen. Never had this happened before. There were fewer than 10 students waiting outside the school, where she normally waits for me.

I was rattled.

I got down the car and asked the guard / traffic warden whether there were any more students inside the school, to which he said NO.

Panic struck.

Was she kidnapped? Or got into an accident and ambulanced to the hospital? Or maybe she's just being mischievous again and was frolicking with her sidekick somewhere?

I went up to a teacher who was waiting for her transport at the bus stop and asked her if she knew who Sherilyn from the DLP class was. She said NO.  Just as I was planning to stomp inside the school to search for her, Drama Queen ran out from the school compound with her sidekick.

I was both relieved to see her and incensed.

That girl accompanied her sidekick back into class to get something that she had left behind. And left her poor old mother waiting frantically for her!

😤

In the car, I harangued at her and told her that if she ever have to go back into her class to get something in future, she has to inform the guard/traffic warden of her whereabouts so that he can inform me.

In the morning, this willful child of mine who has an issue with punctuality made me blow my top.  In fact, she made me so irate that I was in a foul mood the entire morning.

This girl can kill me with her 'don't give a tinker's damn' attitude. Yet she can be my best helper in the house. She helps with the cooking and the cleaning.  She carries my heavy groceries too. Maybe I am not killed by anger yet as she manages to compensate her shortcomings with her strengths.




Dancing Queen rehearsing at our gym for a dance competition coming up next month.

It will be her maiden solo dance competition.  Earlier this year, she and two other friends went for a dance competition audition but they didn't make it as one of her friends had a panic attack and forgot the steps midway audition.

The coming dance competition made us RM700 poorer!  Her doting aunt from Hong Kong sponsored the registration and her dad sponsored the dance costume and GRAB fare for two days. I will be sponsoring my time for two days to be with her at the event. Her dad won't be in KL during the competition.  I honestly do not think she is 100% ready for the dance competition as she will be competing against pro dancers. But this dancing queen who always has confidence bigger than an ocean (she's fearless) thinks otherwise.  SIGH... we'll see.



Dancing Queen choreographed the lyrical jazz movements herself.  I have never heard of lyrical jazz until recently.  With 3 years of ballet and 1.5 years of hip hop dance training, it's no wonder why she chose lyrical jazz.

What is lyrical jazz?
Lyrical dance is a style of dance created by merging ballet and jazz.  The style is usually danced at a faster pace than ballet but not as fast as jazz.  Because of the links between the styles of dance, teachers originally struggled with whether to teach lyrical dance alongside jazz or ballet or as its own, separate style. Lyrical dancing is performed to music with lyrics to inspire movements to express strong feelings and emotions the choreographer feels from the lyrics in the chosen song.  Because lyrical dancing focuses on the expression of strong emotion, the style concentrates more on individual approach and expressiveness than the precision of the dancer's movements. Because of this, there is not as much focus on the choreography, and, in fact, the choreography often exists only as a general guide for the dancer, not as a routine that has to be exactly followed.