nus chinese dance

dedicating this post solely to nus chinese dance, because merllie happened to read the blog post that i put up a few hours ago, and congratulated me on going to become a father at the NUSCD 老人 group chat, and made the group chat lively again. 

merllie, if you so happen to read this (which i know you will), thank you for being such a faithful and loyal reader of my blog, even though the updating of the blog has become less frequent. 

i first joined nus chinese dance in 2007, coming in with a reputation as a wushu exponent rather than a dancer. and the person who pulled me in is none other than xuehong. 

after Dance Reflections 2007, i continued dancing all the way until 2016, simply because of two reasons:
1) my passion in performing on stage
2) the strong friendship that was built with everybody

last sunday was the 庆功宴 for Space. Time. Mind, and it was held at UTown Dance Studio. to my amazement, i realised that i was actually the longest serving dancer. the other two surviving dancers from my era are bin gege and zhunian. 

and i also realise that i am not as attached to the troupe as before. there is nothing wrong with the current batch of undergraduate dancers. the main problem is with me, because i was not very sociable with the dancers. 

hence it is time for me to end this journey with nuscd. my close friends are no longer dancing. they are all busy with their careers and busy starting their own family. i myself is embarking on my next phase of life. there are no more reasons to motivate me to travel to nus for dance practises. so last sunday, i told DLS that Space. Time. Mind will be my last performance with nuscd. and she thanked me for all my contributions over the past few years. :)

i have no regrets joining nuscd, where i made many good friends. so by making use of this SPACE, let us embark on a time machine as we travel through TIME and refresh our MIND on the many wonderful memories that we had from 2007 until now. 

Psyche 2008 庆功宴. i think this was at michael's condo function room. the highlight of this 庆功宴 was a hilarious performance by xuehong, huizhi, zhunian and clarissa, and this performance was inspired by Sound Of The Music. 

invited by huishi to her 21st birthday party in 2008, and the theme was cartoon characters. huishi is now a happily married mother with a cute daughter. 

this was taken at DLS condominium, after the DR08 庆功宴. we went to leisure park to watch a late night movie 画皮 and also sing ktv after that. those were the crazy nights when we can party until so late and can survive with a few hours of sleep. 

if i am not wrong this was the EMCC 2009 庆功宴 and the theme was 'back to school'. 

EMCC 2010 庆功宴. the highlight was when we were watching the performance videos, and it came to fen's item when many red lanterns fly down the stage, and i shouted 'WELCOME TO GEYLANG' and everybody laughed. :D

and then we start to attend one another's wedding. this was hw's wedding in 2011, held at goodwood park hotel. i was the one who pulled hw into nuscd. hw, like me, was also a wushu exponent. his first performance for nuscd was during DR08, where he danced in michael's 出路 item, and forged a love-hate relationship with grace tiang. 

grace's birthday celebration in 2012. if i remember correctly it was a quarter century crisis birthday celebration organised by jingwen. why hw was not there? that's why they have a love-hate relationship. 

a very significant day for me and darling. 10.11.12, 10 November 2012. the day when i proposed to darling, and i activated grace, jingwen, hw, nzj and xuehong to help me. it was an epic proposal and i hope that everyone was happy and proud to be involved in it! of course darling said yes. :)

from birthdays and weddings to baby shower! this photo was taken at huizhi's daughter's one month baby shower in 2013. 

you may think that this was hw's birthday celebration, but it was actually jingwen's birthday celebration. grace booked a room at MBS to celebrate jingwen's birthday! 

xuehong's birthday celebration at fairmont. the room was booked by wilson and xiaoyun. xiaoyun and xuehong were very good friends during the NUSCD days, and they became colleagues at a dance company. xiaoyun looked after xuehong alot during that time, but unfortunately later on there were some misunderstandings that happened between both of them, and they are not on speaking terms now. as their friend, i do feel sad that things turned out this way, and i really hope that one day they will bury the hatchet. 

mirror moon 2013 庆功宴 held at nus utown. happy to be part of this production because alot of 老人 came back to dance, for example xuehong, jiepei, zhimin, jingwen, grace, xuefen, xinyi and peiyi. from this performance i also get to know silei better, and later on she became my choreographer for senses 2015 and i also invited her to my wedding. 

 my birthday celebration in 2014! 

finally it was grace turn to get married, at intercontinental hotel! this was in jan 2015. 

we gave nzj a surprise birthday celebration, after peiyi's wedding lunch. it was a baymax themed birthday celebration. 

to end off this post will be a photo with the nuscd dancers that was taken during our wedding. thank you so much for the great friendships on and off stage. 

looking forward to the next 老人 gathering! 

saturday post

it is already term 2 week 3. right now my motivation everyday is to quickly reach home and spend time with darling, watching tv together. i am becoming more like a family man and a... father to be. yes i am announcing it here. darling is pregnant! she is now at her 2nd trimester. the edd will be on 14 sept. :)

yesterday night we watched the final episode of 我是歌手. 

and this two were my favourite! 

singing the soundtrack from the latest korean craze 'Descendants Of The Sun', and inviting the original singer to perform the song together. win liao~

inviting the two canto legends, and he himself is also a canto legend. and 林子祥 can still rap like that at the age of 68?! omg i am so impressed. 

happy birthday darling~

brought darling to Equinox last saturday to give her a birthday lunch treat! 

the food spread was not as extensive as those at Sakura, but its quality made up for it. good food with good service and a splendid view while dining, why not? :)

mon evening we went to Famous Kitchen at 54 Sembawang Road for her birthday dinner. Famous Kitchen is apparently very famous (although it was my first time hearing of this place). once you go in to the restaurant you will see the walls covered with alot of photographs of celebrities who had dined at the restaurant. 

happy birthday darling~ hope you enjoy the birthday meals and the birthday present~

DOTS (Descendants Of The Sun)

the craze that is happening right now. and believe it or not, i actually have gone with the craze, together with darling. 

it all started 2 weeks ago, when we are lazing at home on a sunday morning, and darling happened to tune into the KBS channel. and it so happened that the channel was showing episode 1 of DOTS. and she found the drama quite interesting, and she asked me to watch together with her. so we watched together, and so happened that the channel is showing a DOTS marathon of episode 1 to 6! and ta da, we are hooked already. 

DOTS is broadcasted on KBS channel (Starhub Channel 815) on every wed and thur, 850 pm to 10 pm. 

and this is one of the soundtracks that i really like! 



this is the link to the official MV, which the user has disabled the embedding function: 
https://youtu.be/SdHQkkRc-hc

saturday post

just now darling and i hosted xuehong, nzj, laval + family, tuan (xuehong and nzj new house mate) and meizheng for dinner at our house. 

we prepared our signature dishes (actually it's the only dishes that we are proficient enough to cook): codfish soup, kimchi salmon, salmon with mustard and portobello mushrooms. we also got ready our air fryer, and we put it into good use, air frying chicken balls, seaweed chicken and spam fries! spam fries were really good, and super addictive. once you start, you cant stop. thank you xuehong for bringing the luncheon meat and cutting the meat into strips. 

it's great to see everyone and catch up with everyone! thanks for the housewarming gifts! :)

Easter Day post

very thankful for the public holiday today, because i can take a break at home. last week was the march holidays and i am really glad to recharge during that week, even though i went back to the workplace almost everyday to meet up with parents who missed the Meet Parent Session on 11 mar. on 11 mar that evening, the Meet Parent Session only ended at 1030 pm. omg. the professionalism of the teachers at the workplace never fails to amaze me. i am thankful to my colleague who replaced me because i was dancing for Space. Time. Mind. 

on wednesday i received a piece of shocking news. my ex colleague, Ms Marianne Wong, passed away on tuesday. 

ms marianne wong is at the right side of the picture, wearing a pink top, purple skirt, red necklace and a black pullover. 

ms wong teaches english and food & nutrition. she is a very happy and positive teacher, who enjoys singing. she always hums in the staffroom, and she was a member of the staff welfare committee, and when we celebrate colleagues' birthdays, she will gladly hold the mic and lead all of us to sing birthday songs. 

in 2014 she left tpss to join ngee ann sec as ngee ann sec needs food & nutrition teachers. the last time i saw her was last year, when she visited tpss. she happened to also be one of the teachers in-charge for dance, and hence she knew derek seong, and told me that derek sing high praises of me. 

yesterday i went to the wake. saw my ex colleagues there. as well as my ex students. students from ngee ann sec were there too. 

rest in peace ms wong. thank you for always being so cheerful. 

thursday post

invited some of my students to my new house this afternoon. 

all the students above are from show choir. coincidentally it was simin's birthday and i got a birthday cake for her to celebrate her birthday. 

later on wenping and shengrui (both from AVA) came, followed by chunying and yanan (both from modern chinese dance). 

wenping and shengrui are both very capable students. we worked very closely together because i was in charge of all the performing arts events, and every successful performance need a strong AVA team, and i am glad to have them. i wrote an article just for the AVA students for the school newsletter because they are the unsung heroes and their contributions always went unnoticed. 

as for chunying and yanan, i guess that they need no mentioning because they are always involved in my school performances, as well as the external performance by Xin Yi Dance Troupe that was successfully held in Dec 2015. 

had a very good chit chat session with everyone. the show choir students admitted to me that they were very scared of me because i always scold them during the B2B rehearsals in 2011. and in 2012 they were all so traumatised when they know that i am going to be their teacher in-charge. hahahahaha. but as time goes by they found out that i am a very nice person and they were glad to have me as their teacher in-charge. :p

thank you everyone for coming to my new house, and thank you for the house warming gifts. :) 

sunday post

i woke up this morning at 530 am, because i am going for Urbanthlon 2016 with my pe friends. a bit worried that i am not able to complete the run because i was not feeling well. 

thank goodness i still manage to complete it! all 4 of us have been participating in Urbanthlon since 2014. i haven't been running much before this and as a result i got cramps during the run and got an even worse cramp the moment i reach the tampines home. 

right after i showered i rushed to woodlands because darling and i are officially moving in today! while i was running the 14 km and clearing the 9 obstacles, darling and her family were busy moving the stuff and preparing for the official move in. thank you everyone for the great help~ 

the moment i reach our new house, we started to pray to 土地公 and also do the stuff that my dad instructed us to do. for example open the tap and let the water flow slowly, representing 财源滚滚. bringing valuables into the house to represent 财气入门. light up joss sticks and let the smoke from the joss sticks touch each room, each ceiling, each wall and each corner. then at every room must pray to the 宅神 to let me and darling 住的平安. 

and once everything was done, we have our first meal at the new house! 

don't you love our blue wall? it is so insta-worthy. :)

it feels really surreal that we have finally moved in to our new house. 3 months passed by so fast, when we first got our keys in late dec and we started renovation in early jan. 

i really want to thank my father in-law for making all this possible. he is our main contractor for the house. :) 

The Last Performance

space. time. mind was successfully concluded yesterday. emotions start to run through my head when the curtain call music was being played. i ended my stint with nuscd on a high by sharing the same stage with the BDA dancers, and i am thankful to have seen them right in front of my own eyes. 

thank you nuscd, and farewell. 

jingkai have posted some of the pics that he took and i like to share them here. :)

the prelude item by BDA was wow to the max. the thunderous applause from the audience testifies to it. 

First Light, the item that i danced in. initially i dreaded going for practises because i just finished the performance with 新艺, and my whole body was conditioned to become a mongolian dancer by BLS. then come back to NUSCD i must condition my body again to become a 身韵 dancer by DLS. but towards the last few practises i became more familiar with the steps and also became more confident. :)

for myself the whole performance went well but there was a small 遗憾. jiemin was my partner and when i did a lift with her and place her on the floor, i think i did not support her enough when she landed and she lost her stability and tumbled awkwardly on stage. after that item i saw her in tears outside the dressing room and i felt even more guilty. sorry jiemin for ruining your peformance. :(

dun you think the snow look so pretty? i am partly responsible for it once again as the snowman that pulled the string that allowed the confetti to fall off from the boxes that are attached to the flybar. thank you to the vice-president yoke kay (who was also my dancer partner in 2015) who asked me to be the snowman. thank you bin gege for nominating me to yoke kay to be the snowman. hahahaha. 

this item was right after the snow item, and we have only 40 seconds to clear away all the confetti. seriously dunno what the management was thinking. luckily we survived the ordeal and we managed to do the impossible of clearing most of the confetti in 40 seconds. this is NUSCD unity. anyway i love this item, titled Wonder. i love the costumes and love the music. and love the dance steps. it is a very DLS dance. 

the highlight of Space. Time. Mind was The Rites of Spring 春之祭. it was a collaboration between the nuscd dancers and BDA dancers. a very abstract item and when i watched the rehearsal a few times, i still cannot understand what the item is portraying. 

to end this post, i like to thank my ADSS colleagues and students for coming down to support me. i think i finally win zhunian with the highest number of tickets (43!!!). the past few years zhunian was always the winner.  

and from now on, i shall support NUSCD by being a member of the audience. 

Space. Time. Mind

NUSCD first invited Beijing Dance Academy here to Singapore was in 2011, for our performance titled 'Efflorescence' 《百花齐放》. 

during that year the dancers were quite young. i am guessing their average age was around 20 to 23. 年轻就是本钱, and they wow-ed all of us with their skills as well as techniques. 

i was very honoured to be able to perform 黄河 with them. it was a very memorable collaboration. :)

this year a different batch of dancers from Beijing Dance Academy are here, to collaborate with NUSCD for our upcoming performance "Space. Time. Mind". this batch of dancers are definitely more senior, as they are in their late twenties, with some of them who are already parents. and one of them is the world famous 孙科, and i watched his youtube clips many years ago. 

for those who are watching Space. Time. Mind this friday, please be punctual as you will live a life of regrets if you miss their opening item. i watched it for the very first time during yesterday's vetting, and i was so amazed and so in awe. 

TPSS Fiesta

went back to the previous workplace for the signature event, TPSS Fiesta. 

this time i have the freedom to walk around all the stalls, which i do not have this luxury in the past, as i was too busy running aesthetics performances. 

first i let 5N1 washed my car for $8. then i bought fried chicken from 4E4 for $1.50. bought a can of coke for $1 from 2E3, because my show choir student from that class keep pestering me to support her stall. and then i patronise 3T1's game stall and supported them by playing their football game. 3T1 was my form class for two years, when they were in sec 1 and sec 2. 

once again i felt all the love and warmth from all the students and alumni who greeted me. 6 years at this place has built alot of bonds with both colleagues and students. i am glad i am still being remembered all this while. 

weekend post

darling and i planned a staycation for the in-laws. the in-laws helped us alot in renovating our new house. 

we chose grand mercure roxy because it is in the east, and is a place where the in-laws seldom go to. and the east is a food heaven, so we can treat them to have good meals 24/7. 

the first meal for them is kay lee roast meat at tanjong katong road. i am very familiar with tanjong katong road because my sec sch was at that area. :)

not very cheap. half a roast duck cost $25 and the char siew must buy at the minimum price of $10. the char siew is damn good. melts in the mouth. roast duck is good too. especially the duck skin. hahaha. father in-law totally love them and wanted to buy again the next day. 

after checking in we went to 112 katong to watch 'Mermaid', directed by stephen chow. the movie was a treat from darling's little sis. 

very nice movie with lots of humour and also inculcate an educational theme on the importance of conserving marine biodiversity. i think is nicer than aaron kwok's Journey To The West. sorry aaron kwok. #showluobetter #dengchaobetter

after the movie, darling's little sis have craving for ice cream and we went to cafe 9:30 (by awfully chocolate). she bought the dark chocolate ice cream. #caloriesintakeneedtomaintain 

we went back to the hotel room to wait for xuanxuan and her family. i booked two rooms and we are so glad to be given the connecting rooms. xuanxuan had lots of fun running from room to room. 

dinner was at roland restaurant! 

roland restaurant is known to be the founder for sg's chilli crab. the gravy is really good and matches very well with white rice. we also ordered the crab vermicelli, hor fun and a vege dish. 

the next morning we walked to marine parade hawker centre for a very sumptous breakfast. after that i sent darling and the in-laws to kay lee to da bao roast duck for their dinner, while i went to fort canning hotel for weiquan's wedding lunch. 

and that concludes my meaningful weekend! glad to see that the in-laws enjoyed the staycation. :)

Space. Time. Mind

this was taken last friday at UCC Dance Studio, during our 2nd vetting. 

this was my first time dancing in a vetting session, because i missed the 1st session as i just came back from malacca. 

this vetting session didnt turn out well for me. i forgot some of the movements (what's new anyway). 

i watched The Rites Of Spring (TROS) for the very first time, and it was quite spectacular. TROS is a collaboration between both the nuscd dancers and beijing dance academy dancers.

and we are featured on yesterday's straits times. 

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/dancing-to-the-rhythm-of-quantum-physics

we are likened to quantum physics. #deep  

quickly buy tickets to support our show! it is on 11 Mar 2016 (Fri), 8 pm at NUS UCC Hall. 

House Renovation

the house renovation is almost done. 

last saturday we have the remaining furniture delivered to the house, for example the dining table & chairs, the queen size bed for the master bedroom and the sofa. 

the dining table & chairs we got them at a very cheap price of $659, and unfortunately when the table was delivered to us, there were scratches at the corner of the table. they also dun look aesthetically pleasing with the nice blue backdrop of the dining area. so we went down to the furniture shop to ask for a change, and with the help of my sister in-law and her husband's persuasion skills, the salesman allowed us to change the table & chairs. hence we got a more atas looking table + chairs, at a more expensive price. :p

let me share the pics of our living room and master bedroom! 

the owl cushions are given by andrea, who is darling's sec sch friend and also one of darling's 姐妹s during our wedding. sofa ($1099) and coffee table ($399) from castlery. 

curtains by CurtainsTalk. cost us $1149. 

master bedroom. bedframe ($785) and nightstands ($613) also from castlery. wall painted by my mother in-law. her painting skills very professional, as she has been painting her house, all by herself, for the past few years. 

this love nest is a combination of efforts from both of us and our parents. my dad gave inputs on how we should renovate our house based on his fengshui knowledge. my FIL then asked the carpenter to make the furniture based on the inputs. MIL helped to paint the house and even cleaned our house. darling and myself help out whatever we can based on her parents' instructions. 

we are hoping to move in by mid march. looking forward to the day of moving in! 

Total Defence Day

over my past 6 years as an educator, this year's commemoration of Total Defence Day is the most big scale i have ever seen. 

firstly, last week all students' parents receive a letter from the P, stating what are the events leading up to Total Defence Day and the programme for Total Defence Day. 

today, all staff and students receive a meal coupon. there was a food rationing exercise at the canteen. we have to exchange the meal coupon for rations that were consumed during the japanese occupation, for example sweet potatoes, porridge, tapioca, corn and plain white bread. 

photo taken at the canteen with my colleagues and my form class students. 

i exchanged my coupon for two sweet potatoes. and because the food were not sufficient for my students, they asked for my sweet potato and i gladly gave one to them while i ate the other one. some of them were totally not used to eating these food and i have to educate them on what our ancestors went through during the japanese occupation, and they had to eat these food everyday. 

and then there was an assembly programme consisting of all the UGs and english drama, whereby they put up a skit to showcase the importance of total defence. alot of effort is being done and kudos to the teachers and students for making all these possible. the assembly programme ended with a fancy drill by each UG and each UG recited their own UG pledge. 

speaking of total defence, this year will be my 10th ICT. and after that i will be placed in the Mindef Reserves, which means i no need to go for ICT anymore. can't for that day to come!

初一

celebrating our first CNY as Mr and Mrs Tan! 

this is darling's 叔叔's house at sengkang. after the 拜年 we went to the newly opened waterway point at punggol with the in-laws. we are all amazed at the crowd. 大年初一 still got so many people go shopping when most of the shops are closed and only the restaurants are opened. 

除夕

for this year's reunion dinner, the grandchildren are tasked to buy the steamboat ingredients. we get to choose what we want to buy, and i chose scallops and all the balls. 

this year was also the first time that darling joined us for the reunion dinner. :)

 

and this year was also my first time giving out ang baos as a married man. i gave out the ang baos today to my younger cousins and nephew and niece because tomorrow we are not going to their house to 拜年. 

15 more minutes to 大年初一! going to stay up after 12 midnight to 守岁 for my parents. 

saturday post

watched this today with darling and her parents. 

i had high hopes for this movie because the trailer really look fantastic, but after watching the whole movie, it was just... normal. 

compared to the previous monkey god by donnie yen, this installation has slightly more humour in the 对白. 

the next movie that i am looking forward to is Deadpool! 

friday post

today the workplace celebrated CNY by having a 1 hour CNY concert from 1130 am to 1230 pm. before 1130 is still normal lessons. 

watching the concert gives me alot of memories that i had from the previous concerts that i am involved in at the previous workplace. and this is also my first time watching the wushu team perform on stage. the wushu team still has room for improvement, but they have quite alot of members, and they have one student who is very good. if you ask me honestly, the wushu team here has more potential than the wushu team at the previous workplace. 

the pe dept agreed to wear red also for today! 

the lady in blue is my hod. she actually wore a red arsenal jersey but she changed out into this blue top because she had pe lessons in the morning. #peteacherwoes

and the P actually walked around the staffroom to wish every chinese teacher happy cny. was surprised by his personal touch. batman has never done that before. only wish the teachers through email. hahahahahaha. 

the school's mascot, Addy, wishing everyone a Happy CNY 2016! 

thursday post

today i went back to the previous workplace to play netball with the b div girls. they challenged the teachers to a friendly match to prepare themselves for the upcoming b div netball competition. 

felt a great sense of nostalgia when i drove into the school gate. said hello to the security guards. the security guards greeted me. "YY! long time no see! where did you go?"

and then i told them i change school already and we chatted for a short while. 

after that i walked to the parade square. the netball girls saw me and they all screamed "MR TANNNNN". i felt so much love and warmth from them. waved at them and smiled at them happily. and then i said hello to my colleagues. mrs rose chen (VP), mr elango (PE HOD) and mr joshua foo also came out of the staffroom and chatted with me briefly. the other students (eg my last year form class students and performing arts students) also came to me and greeted me. i am so happy to be back. really. 

it was a good netball game. a very good intensive workout for me. i have never exercise that intensively since 2016. coming back home with a cramp in the quadriceps signified the good workout. :p

really miss all of you!