YOGAYUGA

Teacher: You are not going to improve, Joyce… if you only come for class about once a week. For those,  who learn Argentine Tango, they have class at least twice a week……..

Teacher: Joyce! You are not doing Latin here, you are doing ARGENTINE TANGO” How can you always move like you are doing Latin dance?? It’s totally different. You don’t do swing, you don’t do swirl, you don’t follow pattern….you are not doing Latin!!!! You are connected with me. I lead you for every single move. Our connection is chest-to-chest. So please don’t be shy!! You have to be close to me, and just lie on me, not move away. And also not grab my shoulder so tight…..

Ahahhaa…I had been complained by my Italian teacher for times. Yes, I felt shy. It was true as I don’t know him so well that I felt embarrassed to dance close with him. However, this is crucial in Argentine Tango. Argentine Tango is indeed a challenging dance to learn.

Secondly, I am too busy to attend classes. Therefore, I don’t join group class. He asked me to join group class then I can see what others are doing, however, my time is not allowed to commit a group class. It means I have to attend certain class in certain time every week. I can’t do it as I always travel. I take private class so I can control my time better, but it’s still not good enough.

I don’t have permanent Latin dance teacher for quite a while since Colin left. He introduced us an Australian lady teacher but she is always not in H.K. She travels between H.K. and Australia for teaching.

I really don’t know what I am doing with my dance learning now….sigh!

Colin and Norman threw a party in the Marina Club next to their boat house tonight. It was the last night that they spent in H.K. They invited over 60 guests in the party. We danced, drank, ate, laughed, talked until early morning next day. It was a very warm and loving evening. Colin and Norman are loving married gay couple, who lived in H.K. for eight years. They both love H.K. H.K. is not only a place for business and making good money, and is a place you can meet great people. This is what Colin said in his speech, and I totally agreed. Many western expats do have great jobs in H.K. with good money living under high standard of life. They found their dreams in H.K. but over several years they eventually will leave for good.

Speech gave by their friend, and also by Colin

Me: Colin….I am so nervous…

Colin: You will be alright…..darling…

I GOT MY MEDAL!! Colin! You made me dance. You inspired me. Sadly, you are leaving us. I was in your dance school for almost three years. It wasn’t a long time, but long enough to share your dancing passion. Some of us were with you for up to eight years. How sad that you are no longer our teacher in H.K. Your students couldn’t help to cry after the exam finished. It was our last dance with you. We all love you…..Colin…..

My Latin American Dance bronze medal was qualified by FATD

I did miss some steps in Cha Cha Cha. You can see from the video as I pointed out which position it was. Don’t ask me why the image of video changed from horizontal to vertical!! It was my sister’s job!!!! She is not professional enough holding the camera. LoL

Colin was the only one to dance with all of us in the exam. There were almost twenty of us, so you can tell how tired he was. He danced as a male partner with a female student, and also as a female partner with a male student. He was GREAT!!

This girl danced as a male position, so Colin danced as a female partner. It wasn’t easy at all.

This is the exam for gold medal.

It was a Cabaret night. It was the night that we met our judge from Australia, who is an elegant lady, and a teacher of Colin. Colin is our Latin dance teacher from Australia. Sadly, he is leaving us for his new job back in Sydney.

We had buffet dinner on the night with excellent performances showed by Colin and his professional dancing students. They all were doing great. They are students with very high level of dancing skills, and being with Colin for up to eight years.

We had a special section for Colin showing the farewell video of us speaking our true voice. I couldn’t help to tear when Colin told me that he is leaving for good during my private class. He is a great teacher, my mentor. The one who made me dance. I improved a lot under his teaching.  He was so much in patience teaching me. I was inspired by him. He is my second dance teacher. My first dance teacher was Jason. Jason is Colin’s student. Jason also left for Australia. Well, Colin introduced us another teacher, named Carina, who is also from Australia but originally born in Ukraine. However, I am not sure if I would like to have a female teacher. I need a male dancing partner for long term practice; therefore it’s essential that I have a male dance teacher.

I already have my first trial Latin dance class arranged next Wednesday with an Italian teacher from my dance studio. I was introduced to him by Colin. In fact, students do choose teachers based on several reasons such as nationality of teachers, their professional level, their experiences and the mutual connection of eachother.

Nationality of teachers – This is very much related to the dance nature and dancing technique of certain countries. Italy, England, Australia, Latin American countries, Ukraine and Russia are well known good in Latin and ballroom dance. Colin is the Championship winner, so his standard is definitely up to international level. Most of teachers are Championship competitors in my dance studio.

It’s very important to have a teacher who you can communicate well with. I am talking about body language and mutual connection. It’s not everyone you can dance with. The connection of a student and a teacher is very important. You cannot make achievement in dance if you don’t have spirit and body connection with your dance partner.

Margaret, the judge of our medal exam..

Assistants of Colin

Colin and Carina

Enjoy the rest of videos! They were performances run by Colin and all his professional dancing students…..Wowoooooo

Argentina Tango….I really love it!!

Carina and Igor – they are Championship competitors and professional teachers from Ukraine

I love watching Dancing with the stars! Tonight was my last night to watch it until I get back again. Chuck and Julianne are my favourite dancers!

I am taking my class this coming Saturday. My God! I missed my class for three weeks now, more than I thought. Dear…………my exam….sigh!!!

It was a dancing competition today, Ballroom and Latin. Two couples of my dance studio partcipated the competition. One couple won the forth place of the ballroom dance section.

It was such an enjoyable afternoon!

I am also preparing my medal exam. I have been on and on for months, and the final date is set on May 17th. My teacher told me that I will be the first participant of Latin dance section on the list of the day. My teacher is dancing with all his students in the exam, so the first one should have some advantages I guess. At least, he wouldn’t be too tired to begin with…hehe…

Here are some fantastic videos I share with you all. My new camera indeed works very well….

The Ballroom winner couple…….

Their videos…

The Latin couple’s videos…

Line dancing from some “Tai Tai”. It means mature married ladies

Latin dance group practic before competition started….

Other competitors were good too…

I attended a dance performance at Discovery Bay tonight called Picnic in the Park. It was a local fair with live dance and singing performances. They invited our dance school to do a 15 mins demonstration on the stage. We did the group bus stop line disco dance, Cha Cha Cha and Jive. It was a good time to promote our dance school. Our teacher asked us to grab some opposite sex audiences (it means male audiences, because most of us are girls lol) to get to the stage and do some Rumba Salsa in the end of the performance, however, we found almost no teenager/adult male audiences. The only audiences were kids. The kids were dancing like crazy. They enjoyed the show rather than anyone else in the park. Our teacher told us to distribute some flyers after the show, but not many people we could give to as many were kids. This event was like a western style activity in the public park, which we don’t usually have it in Hong Kong. I guess it only happens in Discovery Bay as most of residents are westerners in this place.

It was my first time to do a public performance, needless to say I screwed up almost all the dance patterns when I was doing solo. hahaa!! It wasn’t easy when you had thousands of people watching you. It was fun though, nothing serious and formal. My parents were watching me. They did have a good laugh of what I did. It was a mess anyway because the stage was too small for ten of us.

The major performers were assistants of our teacher. They won the international competition a month ago. They were doing great, of course!! Oh well, good dance technique requires lots of efforts and time as well as personal passion. You couldn’t do it good if you miss one of those elements. Talent is also one of the critical skills that lead you to be a good dance learner. My talent is limited but I enjoy it for fun and leisure. ^_^

We had barbecue buffet dinner by the pool in Marina Club after the show. The food was great. I ate a lot. I was starving after all the exercises. Everyone asked me how come I could eat so much. I am so thin in their eyes so they can’t imagine how come I could have so much food without weight gained. Oh well, I only know that I am natural born thin and all healthy. We danced non stop after the dinner in the open space. Some did Jive. Some did Rumba Salsa, Waltz and Cha Cha Cha. We did group dance too. We became the performers again of the night in the club. It was so enjoyable and fun. I love it!

I did more practice these two weeks due to the show, so I did have certain improvement, but still long way to go until the exam. BTW, the exam wil be held in May next year now. For some reasons, it had been delayed, but is good as I don’t think I am ready for it.

The buffet dinner by the pool….

Our group dance after dinner…

Our dance teacher was dancing in the dinning place. His assistants were performing in the show.

It’s boring! It’s boring! Come on baby! Where is your sex of heels??

Ahahhahaa……everyone was laughing!!

It’s nothing about sex here. It was just the comment of our Aussie dance teacher gave us in the class tonight. We were doing Bolero Rumba. Everyone was serious lacking of relaxation. It’s hard. Latin dance requires passion, motion and all the sexy body and hip movements. You may look sexy if you moves it well with appropriate actions. Otherwise, you would look ugly. I mean it. lol

I am the worst in Samba and Jive. Jive is the worst for me actually. The whole dance of Samba is rather short on the bronze level, so I still can handle it. I am better doing slow dance such as Bolero Rumba. Cha Cha Cha is fine as it’s easy to remember.

Our teacher said no one failed in the history. If he knew that anyone could have a chance to fail in the exam then he wouldn’t let her to do it. I hope he is not going to kick me out at last, in case one day he says “Joyce is going to fail!”

What do you feel from dance? (regardless you are a dancer, a learner or an audience)

Feel loved, joyful, passionate, romantic, affectionate, sensational, sexy and hot……….

Oh dear! What an enjoyable night to see such great performance of Latin and Ballroom dance – The Galaxy of Fame 2008.

The dancers are great. They are professional dancers from Poland, Belgium, Italy, U.S.A., Lithuania, Ukraine, England and Russia. There are six couples. One pair of the couples, who have been dancing together for 20 years. How amazing! They must be great friends and lovers. Dances included Vienna Waltz, Waltz, Jive, Rumba, Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Foxtrot, Quick Step, Paso Doble and Tango. All the dresses are incredibly beautiful. The Latin dresses are so sexy and hot!!

Joyful Jive – The female dance, Joanna Leunis, was so amazing doing spin turn without stopping from the middle of dance floor to the edges of it. Her dress is so beautiful and sexy. I love it.

Romantic Foxtrot

Elegant Waltz

Wonderful Quick Step and Passionate Paso Doble

I would love to share some songs here. These are all my love. They are great for Latin and Ballroom dance. I mean to share MUSIC ONLY not the IMAGES as the images were horrible. My camera is too bad. I should buy a new one sooner or later. I can’t capture videos clear in too far distance. It’s NOTHING near to CLEAR at all.

WARNING: PREPARE FOR THE GREAT SONGS BUT THE WORST IMAGES!!! ^_^;

Sexy Tango

Joyful Jive

Romantic Vienna Waltz

Passionate Rumba – I love this song very much indeed….It’s so passionate and sensational….

Elegant Foxtrot – It’s so 30s, that’s why I love it…..

Definitely HOT – Paso Doble – a song from Carman

Really can’t get your feet off the dance floor – Quick Step

Definitely sexy – Samba

So bad, just half song but absolutely lovely, and it makes you moved – Foxtrot again

End of the show….