i'm feeling a little distraught about the current state of affairs. concert was supposed to be a chance for everyone. a perf planned well in advance, so that people have time to learn more. for it is through performances that people learn the most. but it din work out. people need time to practice, to learn, to adapt, to absorb, and now we no longer have it.
and i still remember the little aspirations we had, ideas that popped out of nowhere, that made us all excited but never got put into action. remember performers in the audience? spotlights in the audience? the concept of a storyline? and i'm wondering what should i have done. thinking back now, maybe at that point in time, i would not have had the foresight to tell people to do otherwise, or the thought of reminding myself about the original objectives i had wanted to achieve through concert. to me, it was not so much about the kids. it was more about us. street.
why didnt i push for practices to start in february. were we all too caught up with J1 stuffs then? j1 orientation and beginning of programme, the planning of j1 programme was wat occupied us for the first 2 weeks or so of february. i should have sensed something was wrong when streeters say they wanna dance, but there was no dance sessions for them. why didnt i check on the choreography then? or was it because i was still being fooled by grand plans and not knowing it. maybe i was caught up with trying to decide and finalise the concept of the concert. we did not have a venue and we had too limited funds. we had even grander plans for selling stuffs that i knew would not really work out. maybe it was a point in time when finances was being changed rediscussed, we were waiting results from somewhere.. there was cny, take five, dramafeste, and without details confirmed, no one had the motivation to start prac.. no. more like there was nothing to prac about.
and by the time march came, no one wanted to practice, because we were 3 weeks away from common test. and the choreographers needed their mugging times. because when CTs come, we are supposed to stop everything and just focus energy on CTs. because exams are more important than any other activities. such a pity. i knew we should have started practice when I was already starting CIP with the kids and finding time very limited. but we cant. CTs were 3 weeks away. and "not everyone can handle CTs and street stuff at the same time like me." yes i was being told that same line a zillion times during that few weeks.
i thought ok we'll wait till after CTs, then we must start practice. but there was still nothing to practice about. it was 6 weeks to performance. except, at that point in time, we still did not have the date confirmed as we did not have the venue confirmed.it wasnt till that week was almost over, 5 weeks, when we finally semi confirmed the venue. and there was more distractions. we had no name. we spent that week trying to settle on a name. yes we spent a week on it. and then we had to work out disparities between what people wanted on a poster. and get the relevant resources/people who are able to do a poster on the computer.by then poster design was one week late. and by the time the 'final' copy came out, we were 2 weeks behind deadline. and there was street nite. and there was various editing, before i finally sent it for printing 2 weeks after it was supposed to be submitted.
and i was so caught up with posters that all i could do to check on the concert group, was to insist that prac started. and i know thats not really called checking. the very first prac session occurred on 9th april just last week. 4 weeks left. and it was to teach the choreography i came up with the tuesday before. i dunno wht happened to the rest of the choreography. it just couldnt come out... and that was the only practice last week. for weds, thurs and fri were spent trying to get as much choreo done/extracted as possible (i am so happy for the group of you who stepped in to figure out a solution.. I wouldnt know what to do on my own..), to rearrange our current item arrangements so as to reach a feasible solution.
so here we are now, in this week. 3 weeks more like 2 1/2 weeks left to concert. at least i can now see a direction where we are going, yet it is still very saddening for me (and for ruth) to shift people around items, because the original intent was not to re-focus on the same people again. we wanted to groom yall. but perhaps i din have the foresight in mid-feb to countdown the no. of weeks/days, to pressurise items earlier, to get people involved earlier, so that we may have more time to help the weaker ones. and it was with lots of heartache that i see i cannot fit people in, that i see old segments reused, that i see the same people appearing in all perfs, that i see myself involved in a full item, when my original intentions were only to dance with the kids. i really did not want street to be just a few strong people hiding the weak people. and it is with great regret that at this point in time i find we have to revert to this again. indeed disappointing. street can be so much more. if only we had more time or realised earlier. i believe the concert will be very good, but this wun be street at its best. sadly..
i think i have been sunken in this kind of mindless doing stuff for a long time. that when ruth first started speaking to me mid last week, i could only make head or tail of what ruth was getting at yesterday.. and could only find time to get this down today since i reached home at an unearthly 2300hours yesterday.
come on. we have 2 more weeks. i'm sure we can do this =) nows the time for every streeter to give your all to street. for it is only when all of you give what you can, can we resurrect ourselves from this nearly deathly mess.
this post probably comes at a very bad time. i'm not trying to dampen publicity efforts. We do have exciting and new items in this concert. we're trying out new styles such as street jazz and we're also trying a swing-ish kind of hiphop. oh theres girly hiphop as well. i'm trying to see if i can insert more kpop elements since those are what the school population rarely sees, and kpop dance style is quite unique. we're also having an item that takes a more dramatic perspective/interpretation of hiphop. the good thing about hiphop is that it is really flexible and and quite all-encompassing, yet you can tell that each component has its own style, and that hiphop is not always the same. our invitational groups also doing breaking, popping, locking, and we have a kids group as well. perhaps these performances can introduce everyone to more genres of streetdance. and hopefully street will be able to bring out the different styles and attitudes of each performace.
to all who have ordered/bought tickets, thanks for your support. my deepest and most sincerest thanks to all who come, close friends, not so close friends, we'll do our best to not waste your money and let you down. really appreciate yall coming down to watch us.
i love how the sun sets on my forest.
