My new Blog!

Big harlow to anyone who's dropped by. My new blog address is http://danceybingz.wordpress.com So come over and take a look! thx!

The art of being Grateful...

Read a wonderful e-book recently. It's called "Power of Gratitude". You can download it for free @ this link.

This book provides an interesting view on why it's so important to be grateful for things you want in your life, and this principle of being grateful fits so perfectly well with the Law of Attraction. It tells us that the simple act of giving thanks to everything that we desire helps us focus on what actually want. And as we spend more time thinking positively about what we want, it sends strong signals to the universe to create more of these things for us!

Here's the 5 steps to being grateful:

1. Believe that the universe has abundant resources for everyone to receive whatever they want.
2. See everything that has happened / is happening as beneficial for you.
3. Be happy (grateful) for what you have, and dissatisfied enough to receive more.
4. Let go of hatred; forgive.
5. Give what you can give to others.

This is great advice! Let me know when you get any success doing this!

My "quantifiable" dance experience so far..

Yes, it's time to update my dance experience, then I can go ask for an interview to start teaching dance, and continue to positively impact more lives! This post will be updated every now and then, when I remember what I did... heehee.

In reverse chronological order:

Dance Training
2007
Jan to present: Learnt a variety of dances (Jazz, Contemporary Dance, Dance improvisation etc) under ECNAD's Dance Explorer Programme
2004-2005
Part of hip hop dance company United Groovers, founded by Singapore's premier hip hop guru Mr Patrick Loo
2001
April-July: Did 3 months of intensive dance training in Jazz, Funk and Salsa under the directorship of Mr Lionel Araya, in Jitterbugs Swingapore's first batch of dance scholarship programme.
2000
2000-present: Hip hop dance training under guidance of Singapore's premier hip hop guru Mr Patrick Loo, aka Tricky P.

Competitions
2005
Sep: 2nd runner-up in World Cyber Games Hip Hop dance competition (group category)
2004
1st runner-up in Pacific Plaza dance competition.
Finalist in Suntec Dance Competition (Open Group Category).
2003
1st runner-up in Pacific Plaza dance competition.
2002
Champion team (Titanium) in NUS Funkamania Dance Competition held at NUS Arts Forum.
1st runner-up (Titanium) in NTU's Impressario Talent competition (Dance category).
2001
2nd runner-up (Hip Rock) in NUS Zaam3 dance competition held at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza Finalist (Hip Rock) in NUS Funkamania Dance Competition held at NUS Arts Forum.

Partial Listing of Commercial Shows Performed
2006
Opening item for Channel 8's "Ultimate Comedian" Finals ('Live').
2005
Guest performance as United Groovers at NUS Funkamania Finals at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza.
2004
Pre-event for Hoobstank's Beach Concert at Sentosa Siloso Beach as United Groovers.
2002
Opening dance item for Channel U's "Wild Wild West" Variety Show.

Teaching/Choreography Experience
2006
Ad-hoc cover instructor for Sports-For-Life's Hip Hop dance classes (Kids and Adult classes) 2002
Choreographed and taught mass dances for Freshman Orientation Camps of Hall of Residence 8 and Nanyang Business School, NTU.
2001
Choreographed and taught pageant contestants for Cultural Activities Club Ball, NTU.

Dance Explorer Log - Jazz Makes me feel Beautiful

Had my first Jazz Level 1 lesson @ ECNAD today. Really happy to have Nix as my 'classmate' hee. Love the stretches, the extensions, the barre (hope the spelling's correct) work. I promise to do the heel-pointe thingy every morning!

Just seeing Russ standing still, and looking so magnificent yet graceful with such a beautiful physique makes me feel inspired to do Jazz. I was kinda nervous and anxious to do well during the class (Russ commented that I looked too serious during class), but when the class was over, I felt what I danced just now made me feel beautiful. The word "Beautiful" just rang in my head over and over again, until I felt compelled to write this post tonight.

I'm grateful to be able to learn Jazz under Russ' guidance. =)

Dance Explorer Log - Intro

I'll be writing several posts about my experience, emotions, improvements so far on ECNAD's Dance Explorer programme, which officially started on 6 Jan 07, and I missed it due to Bangkok trip (ah.. well... family comes first here... ). Watch out for posts starting with "Dance Explorer Log" ... hehe..

Reiki Wonder (23-Dec-06) @ Bali

I wanted to something special for this Bali trip, other than the usual shopping and sightseeing, so I googled on "Bali" & "holistic", and voila!, I ended up on www.balispirit.com and clicked on the tab "Holistic Healing & Wellness". The 1-day Reiki Level 1 workshop seemed like a great way to learn something purposeful. Maybe after multiple sessions of Reiki on Mornin, his migraines might just disappear for good! Plus I can reiki my grandma, mum, sister and myself! woohoo!

The initial plan was to just fork out USD100+++ and attend the workshop myself, the rest of the gang including Mornin can hang out at the beach or maybe go shopping. To my surprise, Mornin was interested to try out the workshop too!

The day finally came when we took a 45-min ride from Desa Seni to meet Cat at Ubud. We were warmly greeted by 3 happy Reiki dogs @ Cat's place. Even her house (that she specially designed) just radiates happiness with pretty greenery all around and nice furniture with Balinese carvings. She beams with pride, saying that she "built" the house all by herself with the help of a contractor.

For Reiki Level 1, we had 4 attunements in total, with a delicious vegetarian salad lunch in-between. The best part of the workshop was to try out Reiki on each other. I did Reiki on Mornin first. I visualised a white beam of energy coming through my head and out through my hands to his head. After that, the current I visualised was pulsing strongly. Fascinating! There was a tingly feeling in my hands. For Mornin, he felt energy radiating from his feet. I felt really grateful that he attended this workshop with me, coz if I attended on my own, I might be skeptical of this whole experience. With him, it's as if we re-connected on a whole new level, and it feels magical yet real at the same time. The 3 Reiki dogs added the fun element by sticking to both of us. One even used my ankle as a mini-pillow while we gave him a good doggy massage. The way his eyes gleamed, it's as though we're giving him the greatest gift ever and he's showing immense gratitude looking at us. Cat said there's a Tibetan saying that the dog is the last reincarnation of man before he becomes a man; that's why dogs look so human sometimes.

Reiki is a wonderful thing. It feels so relaxing to do reiki that both of us fall asleep while giving reiki. And the pulsing, sucking feeling at the hands feels as though I've got magical healing hands. Once, we were just holding hands in the car ride, when we both felt a ball of energy swirling right in the centre of our palms! Cool! =D I'll keep on doing Reiki everyday and move on to doing Reiki on my mum and sis =)

P.S for those of you who want to find out more about Reiki, you can check out the discussion thread I've started at Steve Pavlina's forum

What are you / will you be grateful for?

As usual, my inspiration for another exciting blog post came during the long bus journey. Today, I will talk about things I'm grateful for, and things I'll be grateful for.

I'm grateful for having:

• a great and complete family with one cute younger sister who's now happily attached.
• a great job that pays well
• friendly colleagues who support me and are willing to give me honest feedback to help me grow career-wise
• not-so-friendly colleagues who helped me understand my own weaknesses.
• understanding, charming, inspirational, smart boyfriend Mornin! heehee.
• great dance friends and idols to model after: in no order of preference and of course includes many more other idols not mentioned here... (Michelle - groovy, sexy babe!; Eugene - recipient of Patrick's best Student award; Mornin - forever stealing the limelight; Jimmy Kong - stylo milo!; Aishah - hip hop diva!; Allegra and Tina- you rock the stage!; Shulin - my first dance idol!, Ti Eu - NTU MJ's ultimate dance legend!)
• A wonderful dance instructor Patrick Loo who's also a life guru
• been accepted into ECNAD's Dance Explorer Programme
• so many opportunities to perform, choreograph, learn and teach dance.

Things I'll be grateful for:

• being internationally known as a talented and versatile dancer, excellent choreographer, passionate and dedicated dance instructor, outstanding dance therapist.
• being rich enough to support myself, my family, my future family and my dance passion!
• being healthy and fit enough to experiment with a wide repertoire of dance genres.
• having more than 10,000,000 people thanking me for making a difference to their lives through dance
• great relationships with families and friends.