The Royal Dance-off (TRDO) - Chapter 5 @ Singapore Polytechnic

Met these girls at last year's O School Recital and that was also the first + last time we danced together before we formed this team to compete in TRDO Chapter 5! We had a really hard time choosing the right song because we didn't really have a direction from the start, and it was almost 6 months since we came together.
We went from Brood's Never Gonna Change to Gentle Bones' Settle Down (we even had a few sessions practising for these 2 choreos) but nothing seemed right so we finally settled on a remixed version of Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez.

Here's one of the rehearsal days, where we were coincidentally in blue:













We also had days where we were all in monochrome/pink/totally different colours haha.


Heats @ SMU - 30th June

Like in Chapter 3, my team was the 2nd to go onstage hahaha. Had a hard time convincing ourselves that 2 is a good number.

(Photos credit to Poey YT)














Despite our hiccup at the end of the piece (hahahahha it is really a pain to watch the clip), we were on to the Finals!! Hehehe.
This is another perfect example of Expectation....



.... V.S. Reality:









I had to fly right after Heats for a holiday in Pulau Macan, Fann was busy with SEA Games, I had rehearsals with SIM Danceart, Sayhua and Nikki has rehearsals with NTU Contemp and Yanping had to teach, so basically the following week was mostly blown, and we were only left with 6-7 sessions together before Finals.

After gathering comments from judges after Heats, we took around 2 sessions to change the bulk of the choreo..... and then I decided that we shouldn't be so ambitious/adventurous because with only 4 sessions left to finalise + stablise + get them into our muscles + clean up + etc it was almost impossible, so we ended turning back and making fewer changes (though disagreements came up along the way) but we finally managed to complete on the very last night!!!


Finals @ Singapore Poly Auditorium - 13th June



The judges!! Ryan, Kay, Jeffrey, Ee-Ching and Zaini:



We were the 4th group up!

(Photos credit to SQ Photography)














Ello:









"TRDO!!!!":



1/3 of the #brunchdategirls. Getting fewer and fewer :(



With Valerie:



Windy!:




I am very thankful for #Elevix, and am very glad we have almost the same dynamics and strengths as well as a good match in heights hahaha. Rehearsals were never without laughters and screams and panic and whatnots and all these made dancing with them very enjoyable. There were many times we had disagreements and slight tension because everyone was stressed up, but everything pieced together as fast as they started so nothing major happened.
Yanping and I overcame our fear of heights and jumps during the Finals and I am very happy and proud hahaha. During rehearsals: "Omgggg I cannooott!! / Aiyah, you do lah! I'll be the base / Omg si diao.... / Why must it be me??! / AHHHHHH!! AIYAH REALLY CANNOT LAH!"
The process of forming of our group name was also pretty epic. I've never laughed so much in my life. We took almost 3 hours of our rehearsal time to think of it omg. Strawberry Shortcake.......
It is never easy to compete with people whom you've never worked long-term with, but I'm glad we did it! Although we didn't get the placing we wanted, positive and encouraging comments from the audience and some judges really boosted us a lot and I think we would make it someday with the right direction :)


Thank you Ryan and TRDO team for yet another successful year!!
Also a huge shoutout to Dancepointe Academy for sponsoring our costumes :D Thank you!!!
Thank you Nikki for choreographing so much of the piece!!
And thank you Sayhua for being my go-home partner hahahah. It's really hard to find a dance friend who stays just a few blocks away from me.


Here's our Finals piece! :) Videography by RPProductions: