Some interesting activities have been carefully planned out for the event:

1. Latin dance performances by Connie & Aaron
2. Best Dressed Competition
3. Game: So You Think You Can Dance
4. 50 Lucky Draws
5. 10 Table Draws
6. 9 Grand Prize Lucky Draws (updated!)
7. Teach of my new dance: Feel Good Cha

I will be posting out the rules and materials for the game: SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE so you guys can prepare well in advance for the game! Watch out for more details coming right up!

10 more days to VIVA LATINO!!!

It’s such a sad start of the year with the demise of 2 amazing singers, who have much contributed to the music industry and for us, line dancers who appreciate their music so much.

The dance Ja Ja Mbo, choreographed by Kenny Teh, is choreographed to the song popularly known as Cha Chambo. I’ve heard this song so much in my childhood and have added the dance in my list. While dancing to the song, do say a little prayer for Fong Fei-Fei.

The dance I Will Always Love U, choreographed by John Warnars, is choreographed to the original track sung by Dolly Parton and Vince Gill. But the song became hugely popular when sung by Whitney Houston in the movie The Bodyguard. I love all her songs. Thus, as a tribute to Whitney Houston, I will be using Whitney Houston’s song I Will Always Love You instead. The song is very melodious with her amazing voice belting out the emotions. However there will be a change in the phrasings, with John Warnars’ permission.

1. Start when Whitney sings “Sweet” in “BitterSWEET Memories…”
2. Restart only on Wall 2 after 24 counts (same spot) facing back wall).
3. Tag after Wall 4 (facing front wall) – danced during the ‘break in music’ – 4 counts – Cross RF over LF and unwind full turn over L shoulder, then start the dance again from count 1 after the heavy beat kicks in (on the word “I”, in “and I…”)
4. The main dance (32 counts) remain the same!
5. Edited music in Dropbox, or pls email me for this version.
6. Say a little prayer for  Whitney when dancing..

video:

Rest in Peace, Fei Fei & Whitney!

I’ve choreographed new dance for my upcoming Viva Latino Party. No prize for guessing what genre it is! Latin, definitely! Cha Cha Cha! It’s sexy, fiery and it feels so good! It’s called the Feel Good Cha.

Feel Good Cha is choreographed to the popular song I Feel Good but a remake by Mirko Casadei to the latin cha cha beat. Many would be able to relate to this song. From 1998 to 2006, it was Malaysian’s NTV7′s song for it’s “Your Feel Good Channel” slogan. The music is addictive and keeps ringing in your ears after you listened to it a couple of times.“I feel good! Tereng Tereng Tereng Teng!”

The dance will be taught and released at Viva Latino! Party come 4 March 2012! It’s just 2 weeks away. Can’t wait! Come dance with me!

Meanwhile, enjoy the music! “So Good, Teng Teng, So Good, Teng Teng…..”

A wonderful and amazing year is about to end ~ one that filled me with lots of travelling, dancing, friendships, experiences… Goodbye 2011, thanks for being kind to me. Hello 2012 ~ God bless us all with love, peace, joy, luck, wealth, health and again, lots of traveling, dancing, friendships, experiences… lol… boy am I greedy… hehe! Cheers!! Happy New Year to you!

Rachael and I

We’ve been looking forward to the trip since a year ago… the day finally came and voila! I have 2 busloads of (80+) line dancers tagging along me this time from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru for the event. This year, the Lim family has invited the Line Dance Princess, Rachael McEnaney, to be the guest of honour, so naturally, everyone flocked to JB that weekend to meet and dance with her.

The Lims and McEnaneys

We arrived in New York Hotel and quickly scrambled into our rooms to change into our RED and WHITE christmas themed attire for dinner. Everyone got excited when they came down to the lobby and saw Rachael and her look-a-like mom (Gill), whom many mistaken as her sister! Many were seen taking photographs with their line dance idol. Suddenly a song was played in the air and Rachael and Philip Sobrielo started dancing Proud Mary and in time, many other joined in! It’s a pre-planned Flash Mob that Dr Lim JP has coordinated with the different group of dancers that was scheduled to arrive that evening The whole lobby was filled with line dancers in Red and White and other Christmas colours! Many hotel guests were seen taking out their camera to record this special event!

We then adjourned to the adjacent coffee house for a sumptuous steamboat dinner. Many were seen catching up with each other as we were from different parts of the country and world! Line dancing do bring us together every once in a while in events like this. After dinner, we had a little jamming, also at the hotel lobby! The GM was so kind to accommodate us, in Christmas and dance spirit!

One thing I liked about New York Hotel was its spacious floor space outside the rooms where we had our dance performance practise at night before we retire and prepare for the BIG day the next day!

Wild Party Animals ready to PARTEEEE!!

Early next morning, we were up and ready, this time in our animal prints attire, WILD and READY to PARTY! We call ourselves the Party Animals. We even have a mascot who came with tiger ears and tail!! No prize for guessing who she is! She’s a real sport and such a lovable funny tigress!

Our mascot in full gear - Roar!

When we arrived at the event venue, many people had arrived and busy taking pictures with Rachael. She was also spotted in animal prints! We started dancing and meet up with our line dance friends from other places. As expected, Rachael taught 4 nice dances (expertly as she always does, she simply has a way to teach and break down the complicating steps/sequence):

1. A Place in the Sun (beg) – it’s fun to hear Rachael making sounds during the “fan brushes”. She taught and let us try one wall, but we went all the way with 4 walls… she sat down and eventually lied down – bored – and said we didn’t need her anymore!
2. Purr Kitty (high beg) – a cute fun dance (hey, it fits our attire!) which Jan and I learnt in Toronto. It’s good to refresh again for but others are happy with the dance. Cute, simple and stress-free.
3. Hi-A-Ma Cha (low int) – (Pronounced as “Ha-ee-A-Ma” Cha as heard in the song Pata Pata) a cute real cha cha dance with some salsa elements. It’s great to see Rachael executing the Latin techniques and how she rolled her hips. It has some easy, harder, challenging options for the last set – which makes the dance more interesting! There is a 4 count tag – which you could just hold or just shake!
4. Had A Bad Day (high int) – Choreographed to one of my fav songs Bad Day but not sung by Daniel Powter. It’s a nightclub with lots of syncopation (the usual) but the dance fits the lyrics and melody perfectly. There are however 2 restarts to the dance which may be a little tricky for some but very clearly heard in the music. I loved it and can’t wait to teach & dance it!

note: Loving all the 4 dances – I will be adding them to my party playlist on March 4th! So don’t just forget the dances you learnt!

The crowd - in their own colour themes

There were some performances too during the 8 hour dance event – for the dancers’ feet to take a breather (although some dancers prefer not to). We were awed by a dance group from Singapore, Angel Chia, and the Indonesians put up a grand show that covers the whole floor. Love their props and costumes, as always! We then did a 4 wall Proud Mary Burnin’ which was interesting! Some of us donned colourful wigs to make the dance more fun… Note: we’ll do the 4-wall formation again for my party on March 4th.

Then some of us (from all over, again) put up a performance – Fake ID – following the line dance steps choreographed by Jamal Sims and Endraico Johnson in the movie Footloose 2011. Most of us have never practised together and only practised the not-so-easy steps a few times. The phrasing especially was hard to remember if you’re not used to the song yet! However, we had fun donning cowboy costumes and doing the cowboy stuffs! Fun was the keyword, not Lines!

Rachael gave us a surprise showcase performance. It just showed how strong she is in almost every dance discipline, and how flexible and how great her dance techniques are. When most of us complained of dizziness after making 2 twirls, she twirled around the perimeter of the dance floor (There must have been between 20-40 turns altogether?! Maybe more!) and just stop right there – with no hint of being ‘mabuk’. We really have much to learn from her! She’s such an inspiration to all of us!

Rachael's Showcase

All in all, the event ended with a big bang! It was the best Dance for Good Health, Peace and Joy ever and everyone simply fell in love with the sweet and talented Rachael. Everyone had so much and fun, were reluctant to leave but look forward to the next Dance for Good Health, Peace and Joy. Great job and a million thanks to the Lim family for pulling off a yet another biggest dance event of the year!

This is the interactive Dancelist for your convenience to get the stepsheet or videos (idea from Eddie Tang). To print a PDF copy, click HERE.

Time to get sizzling HOT & SEXY in your Latin outfit!! My 3rd annual party’s theme is VIVA LATINO!

VIVA LATINO! Line Dance Party

Date: 4 March 2012

Time: 10 am – 4 pm (Note the TIME CHANGE!)

Venue: Hee Lai Ton Puchong

Theme: Viva Latino!

Ticket: RM55 Selling Out!

Dancelist: Click HERE to OPEN

In conjunction with this sexy and fiery theme, Connie Tan & Aaron Then, one of the top Latin Dance couple from Singapore will be here to give a Latin Techniques Workshop specially for line dancers. Learn how to cha cha and samba the correct way, and put more seduction and character into your dancing! A bonus session on how to characterize your dance during performance/competition will be thrown in too! A session you should not miss out on… Space is limited. Book your place early to avoid disappointment.

LATIN TECHNIQUES WORKSHOP

Date: 3 March 2012

Time: 1 – 3 pm (Session 1) SOLD OUT! or 4 – 6 pm (Session 2) SOLD OUT!

Venue: Twinkle Dance Academy, 21-1 Jalan 4/109F, Taman Danau Desa, Kuala Lumpur

Ticket: RM50/pax/session

Good news for dancers who are attending both the workshop & the party, instead of RM105, you pay only RM100!

**Note: This Latin Dance couple will be performing at the Viva Latino! Party on Sunday.

The events page was faulty for the past few weeks due to some problems with the plug-in I installed earlier. I’ve now uninstalled that plug-in and reinstalled another one, which seems much better. So the Events page is working again!

Check out the events! See you at the events!!

I was in Penang for the past few days and squeezed in some time to meet Eddie and his students for a mini jam cum workshop. Over 30 people turned up on quite a short notice and more so on a weekday evening. I had a great time and shared with them 3 dances:

1. Freak A Little More (Scott Blevins)
2. Mirror of My Dreams (yours truly)
3. Hey Ladies (yours truly)

As Eddie has some advanced students, they felt challenged to pick up the advanced steps options for Mirror of My Dreams. The few of us took a video after the short teach, and despite the lack of practise to get their kick right, they did quite well! The high kick is optional, you may opt for a higher than the sky kick or just a low kick will do just fine. Also watch me for the optional handstyling.

Enjoy the dance!

This is the stepsheet and video of my new dance MIRROR of MY DREAMS. Taught the dance at Ivy Low’s Dance Celebration in Mentakab on 30 Oct 2011. 2 parts of the dance has been choreographed with optional intermediate and advanced steps. Choose which options to dance to, or simply dance them at different walls according to the music. In the video taken during the teach at Ivy’s party, I taught the intermediate version.

Hope you’ll enjoy it.