Live with courage

DANCE FREE!

6 weeks ago, we did the most impulsive and risky thing ever. If you’ve read our article, it says that we have planned for this event for 4 months. That’s well… semi-true. 4 months ago, we were given a brief for our final year project and 10 weeks of it was planning for an event… 

that didn’t happen. 

(We actually already secured a location at *SCAPE and cancelled it)

With only 6 weeks left, we made a very rash decision. To just press the restart button and start anew. 

It was the best decision ever.

Initially, we had toyed with the idea for awhile, but due to budget and other restrictions, we put it aside until… that fateful day when we made the decision to just do it. A dance competition but with a fashion element. 

We had trouble with the name though. Fashion injection, Fashion Dance Collision… HAHA! And after days of thinking and throwing out names, XQ said ‘… or dance free… or’ and Joni caught it and said ‘DANCE FREE!!’ and we were all like “DANCE FREE!!” OMG!!!

So that’s how DANCE FREE was born. 

Our logo

The message behind dance free is - You’re not born to blend in. Escape from the common. Break free! (I wrote it! :D) and I was so worried that our dance competition would be just like any other ordinary dance competition and that the whole thing in general would be ‘common’. But Phiz (he’s the judge on the 2nd right), said ‘it feels fresh from other events or comps…c”,) Love it! ’ and that… just means so much you know? :) 

Our judges - Joyce, Terence, Andreas (he’s wearing damn nice heels!), Phiz and Chun

Wow, if I want to go into the challenges that we had to overcome in these 6 weeks, it would be endless. And now that it’s almost to an end, I can’t believe we did it. Like the NTU valedictorian said - ‘WE FUCKING DID IT!’

This is Ashraf and I super love his outfit to the max.

I quote Ashraf (one of the soloist), “I said it’s very challenging because if you say it’s difficult, you’re gonna demoralise yourself and tell yourself that you cannot do”

‘Difficult’ is an excuse for not performing well. Challenge is something else altogether. If you fail a challenge, you try again. You try harder. If you fail because it’s difficult, you’re never gonna try and reach higher. And… you’re never gonna break free. I’m so glad we did a dance competition because these dancers, they have this spirit inside of them. It’s the break free spirit and I love it.

B.O.T.S - Lester, Dan, Soon Khang, Farid, Ogus, Ben and Alif Aircho

B.O.T.S! A bundle of energy! And also, the winner of the group category!! Just look at their style man. Fashion and and dance wise, they really brought it all out! 100%! I’m not a fashionista, and I am clueless about dressing a man haha! (Yeah now I’m thinking how come we went into fashion and dance when I have little knowledge about both areas haha!) But these guys gave me some ideas. Look at Alif Aircho over there! He won ‘Own your style’ yo! Checkered shirt and grey vest… I would have thought ‘no way would that match!’ What they are all wearing… it just works. It’s perfect.

There was a lot of first time soloists for DANCE FREE too like Bartho and Jason Lam! 

HIS CAP. YES.

The winner of our solo category is Kai! Also his first time joining a solo category!

He was so shy when he came to do his stage marking! But when he performed in front of the crowd, he surprised me! He was so entertaining man and you should have seen his facial expressions! 

So I look at these dancers, and I reflect. I don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to dance on stage. (Not that I can dance LOL) You really need the break free spirit to do that and my self-consciousness holds me back from situations like this. But through dance, I realised, it is how they let go. 

The message behind Dance Free means something to me because it is something I’m working on. This is why I’m so glad I got to organize this event and learn from these people! They are really awesome! I’m so grateful to everyone who came down, and most definitely grateful to those who helped made this event a success!

These guys and three others who don’t want to take photo huh!! If you were wondering who did the AV, Aiden on lights, Bazli on sound and Sufi on music. I hope I got their names right. They were great! And the rest of the guys including SK (I didn’t get some of your names! :( ), I am super thankful for their help. THANK YOU! <3

Regrets too, that we didn’t take a photo of the photography crew. They were fantastic. It is because of them, the photowall was such a brilliant success. Mad props to David, Ernest and Kianwee. Words cannot express how impressed and grateful I am. (I came back to add this) THE PICTURES are of awesome quality. 

And our EMCEES! Iffah and Ryo! IFFAH AND RYO! IFFAH AND RYO!!! You guys were so good, I am speechless. Everybody thought they were brilliant. I don’t know how did they do it. I am lost for words.

The judges, I am really appreciative that they took the time to come down on a Saturday night to judge for us! Most of them were rushing in from somewhere else but they made it. And for that, a huge thank you!

And here’s my team, Moxy. Can you believe we pulled it off?? Our first ever attempt and “lesson” at event planning/execution and we did it in 6 weeks. It was great working with you guys! The event was so fun, even though it was hell planning for it, I wouldn’t mind a DANCE FREE 2! HAHAHAHAHAH! I think it’s worth it, don’t you think? ;) Anyway, thank you Joni, Xue Qi, Shaalini and Aly for bearing with my over analytical mind and anxiety. And thanks for all the hard work! 

I don’t want to overdo my gratitude because right now, everytime I think of DANCE FREE, gratitude to everyone is just pouring out of my heart. DANCE FREE is our brainchild and it couldn’t have been so wonderful without all these people. 

DANCE FREE will remain in my heart forever. ;)