By Jeff Chin & Phoon Sze Yu
Find out what our dance committee members have to say about their journey in Dance Comm thus far, and share tips for taking care of our mental well-being (as well as advice for those who want to try dancing!)
In this article, we speak to 2 of the members from the Dance Committee, Ashley and Crystal!
A: Hi, I’m Ashley and I intend on majoring in Life Sciences (with Geography 2nd Major)! I very much enjoy dancing (I’ve been a dancer all my life) so I joined BP dance as I want to share the joy with everyone, fellow USP batchmates and clients alike. You don’t have to be great at it to have fun and it’s also a way to bring people together.
C: I’m Crystal, previously from Dunman High, and I’ll be taking computer science! I joined dance comm because I got to do some dance for an event in Junior College and really enjoyed it, so I wanted the opportunity to learn more dance and teach it to others (spread the joy ya know HAHHAHA)
Q1: What did the Dance Committee do this week? Perhaps you could give us a brief description of your progress or share some stories with us!
A: Last Tuesday, we held our first of three sessions with the SAMH beneficiaries wherein all of us hopped onto a Zoom call to teach the first third of the prepared choreography. This comes after having spent the previous three Tuesday evenings learning the choreography directly from the BP Dance committee (namely, our choreographer Edbert) over video calls, as well as flexing out facilitator muscles as we got the chance to teach newcomers who joined the team a little later. In other words, this week’s session was monumental in that it is what everything has been culminating into.
C: It was really interesting because we weren't sure how the participants would respond so we had to adapt to allow the participants to feel more comfortable and let them have fun too! My group ended up doing some jamming sessions during breaks so that we could just talk to our participants.
A: Unfortunately, perhaps due to the rainy weather of the day, the beneficiary attendance was only 50% at 2 people total. As such, to create a more comfortable learning environment for them in the breakout rooms, a few of us had gone undercover posing as participants. For better or worse, the small turnout helped us connect more intimately with the beneficiary and encourage more genuine interaction. By the end of the session, the participant with our group had even requested for us to choreograph a dance to her favourite NDP song “Reach Out for the Skies”!
Q2: How would you describe your overall experience of BP Dance? For instance, what is the flow of a session like? And how did the seniors or choreographers guide you through the session?
A: Due to the overall informal atmosphere that the BP Dance sessions take on, I always look forward to attending the sessions despite their taking place later in the day from 7 pm - 9 pm. They are always enjoyable, and they have been a great platform for me to get to know my fellow USP batchmates. After all, now we all have a shared experience and if you were to play Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” in our vicinity, all of us in the team would either immediately turn the music off or break out in dance.
The sessions are primarily led by the seniors, but in the second and third we had the chance to put on the teacher hat and practice teaching the choreography to newer members that joined later. They start with warm-ups, then progress to teaching that week’s section of the choreography and finally end off with the freshies showcasing what we’ve learnt so far.
C: It’s been enjoyable as the seniors have tried to make the dance very easy for us to learn, catering to all the beginners by mirroring moves and allowing us to clarify. We also always had ample warmups and water breaks throughout the sessions, including those with SAMH. I feel that it was a great opportunity to learn a new dance, make some new friends and kind of use dance to spread joy because we were really just enjoying our time dancing even when our moves may not be perfect.
A: I admit that it is not ideal to be learning a dance via Zoom as there are many factors that detriment the quality of the teaching. The seniors had encountered many unforeseen challenges in our first session which mostly had to do with the actual video calling aspect of it. From not being able to see the upper body and lower body simultaneously due to the lack of space in our rooms to not being sure if the camera view is mirrored or not (E.g. “which leg is that?” “right hand or left hand?”) Luckily, we were also provided with a pre-recorded video which helped us to clarify any doubts regarding directions. For the actual session last Tuesday, we devised a plan to use an accessory like a bandana or a watch to indicate which hand was which and constantly clarified verbally during the teaching process.
Q3: Do you think dance has made an impact on your well-being?
A: I am actually an anomaly in the BP Dance team in that I have prior dance experience. In fact, I have been practicing Chinese Dance for just over 10 years now. So, to say that dance has made an impact on my well-being is quite an understatement. Other than being my choice of exercise, such that I am active regularly, which induces the release of endorphins and breaks the physical monotony of slouching over a desk studying all day, it is also a form of self-expression and a platform for a visceral kind of introspection. Most of our time is spent just going through motions - letting our bodies run on autopilot as we breathe, walk, and take public transport back home from school while scarcely looking up from our phones. On the other hand, dance is a way of being in touch with your body and making intentional movements in a coordinated and purposeful manner. It makes you feel more in control; It is an indubitable truth that practice always leads to progress in dance and that’s just the sort of mood booster that we all need occasionally, that our efforts are not in vain.
C: I think dance has helped to improve my well-being quite a bit. As someone who doesn't always enjoy getting up to exercise, dance was a good way to get my body moving. While it was definitely tiring and made me sweat like a full workout, it never really felt that way because I had a really good time just listening to the music and moving along to it. Dance is also something you can do with others so you can always gather some friends and exercise together!
A: Dance is a great tool for improving one’s mental health as it takes you out of your own head and you can just let the music take you away even for just a little bit. It doesn’t always have to be about pursuing perfection and nailing a set of movements every time, there is so much more to dance than that. It’s about artistry and injecting your own emotions into every move you make to paint the story you want to tell.
Q4: On the topic of mental health, would you like to share some other methods you use to improve your mental wellbeing?
C: Some other things I do to improve my mental health is either to hang out with my friends or just read a book as I feel it can help to take my mind off things for a while :)
A: In all honesty, I am quite notorious for neglecting my mental health with my being a hardworking perfectionist to a fault. I do not have any particular methods that I use to improve my mental wellbeing, intentionally at least. As far as I am concerned, I am extremely lucky to enjoy the work that I do and have the ability to find joy in the little things, even if it’s intense mugging for exams.
But if I were to give any sort of advice, it would be to learn to enjoy time by yourself, by way of going to cafes on your own or simply staying in the comforts of your own home to read books or watch movies. Either way, our tendency to compare ourselves to other people and attempt to meet their ridiculous expectations is very much the main stressor in our daily lives. Hence, to break this toxic cycle of feeling inadequate in the eyes of others, sometimes we just have to plan days to hang out with ourselves.
Q5: Any suggestions on how our readers (or interested beginners) can introduce dance into their daily lives?
A: If our readers are sincerely looking to get into dance, then I would recommend signing up for formal dance classes either at your local community centres or one of the many dance studios in Singapore. It is much more helpful to have scheduled practices and a professional to oversee your dance journey. These places have classes for people of different skill levels and age groups, so there’s no need to be worried about falling behind the rest of the participants.
However, if our readers are only interested in dancing in more casual settings, there are a few ways they can go about it. Of course, there is the ever-popular TikTok with its rich and diverse community of dancers who post their short choreographies on the platform (#dancetok) where we can learn dances in short bite-sized portions. On top of that, it’s always fun to grab your friends and just mess around trying to learn the trendiest TikTok dance of the time.
C: So, I'm an absolute beginner without a dance background but I think there are tutorials online that you could learn from? Or you could also practice the way we did which was memorising some steps then practising it on a 0.5 times speed followed by 0.75 times speed (I feel like it helped me internalise and match the moves to the song but I'm not an expert).
A: Another way would be to YouTube, as it is a great repository of different kinds of videos, including tutorials for favourite KPOP dances or independent dance studios that showcase their choreographies (I personally recommend 1 Million, ALiEN).
Lastly, for those looking for a challenge, they can sign up for dance open classes at the various dance studios (STEP Studio is pretty popular for students around our age). Open classes are independent, unique dance classes focused on choreography where one routine is taught in the duration of one session. Usually, they are on a walk-in basis, so when you are out with friends and suddenly have a spurt of inspiration to dance, you can sign up for a class on the spot.
Q6: Any final words for your fellow dance committee members?
C: Shoutout to Edbert and Aneesa for always being super chill during all the dance sessions, and to my fellow BP Dance freshies for learning to dance with me and working with me during the client interactions!
A: I just wanted to say that it’s very heartwarming to see my fellow dance comm members trying their best to teach the beneficiaries even though they have only just learnt the choreography themselves, and not to mention them not having any prior dance experience. I think it’s amazing how they can set aside their insecurities and prioritise the enjoyment of the participants. So, keep up the good work! All of you are doing a great job :)
P.S. Special thanks to Ashley and Crystal, who pretty much tanked the content of this article :)
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