O-MAI-GAD, I'm An Irish Dancer

So here's the sitch, my left shin has been hurting for some time, but for what reason I had no idea. Then I started to realise that I got the twisting feeling there whenever I do turns, and Cheryl told me that I tended to put my weight on the left leg in my choreography. Prior to this, Fred commented that turning my legs out was some sort of my go-to move when I choreographed. All these made little sense to me then, until...

A Guide To Dealing With Shin Splint (karma: 12) by twinkle_toes__

This article is the bomb, really really! I mean, look at the author's name, you know it's totally legit. However, I couldn't help but to frown just a little bit when I saw the words (karma: 12). Hmm... Anyhoo, thanks to Fred for finding this online article! Here are some revelations:

What are Shin Splints?

Shin Splints is a common term used to refer to shin pain. The kind irish dancers would most often get, an overworked posterior tibialis, is caused by turnout, staying up on toes, impact, and tight muscles, especially in the calves!

Guess, I'm one of these guys.

Great.

(Reminiscing own choreo *gulps*)

Rest

This doesn't mean you have to quit dance for a whole month. Taking a week or two off will give your shins time to recover and is well worth the wait! Look for a time in between feiseanna and performance, when your absense won't be the end of the world, and let your teacher know that you'll be gone that week to rest your shins.

(*coughs* *clears throat* Sorry, I don't think I can... *gulps*)

Spread it out!

Dancing three hours on one day is sure to kill your shins. Look for a way to spread out your classes. If your shins have been bothering you a lot, try to dance no more than an hour a day, and allow yourself a full 24 to 48 hours inbetween.

(Rag. *gulps* Hoods *gulps*)

If you have a block of two to three classes on one day, talk to your teacher and see if you can temporarily switch one of those classes to a different day.

(Osaka. *up-sized gulps*)

Walk Like a Normal Person

All right, how many of us walk around turned out? Or on our toes? If you do, you could be putting strain on the posterior tib even when you're not dancing. Walk with your feet facing forward (yes, zero turnout). Always. You will feel like a penguin, but you'll be a happy penguin without shin pain.

(Bye bye, fat boy walk! *waves handkerchief*)

Watch Out for Killer Floors

They will eat your shins alive! NEVER dance on concrete. NEVER dance on tile.

(Bye bye, AS7. *gulps*)

Doctors and Therapists are NOT Out to End Your Dancing!

I avoided going to the doctor for AGES, because I was afraid they would tell me to stop dancing. But it's really the opposite. Especially with sports med doctors and physical therapists.

Freak, gotta take a better care of this body. Given my outstanding sports career since I was young (which was, and is still, non-existence), I never thought I would ever have any bodily injury from any form of strenuous exercise. Apparently, things have been flipped upside down, so I better take a flipping good care of me now.

My Take on Sytycd S7 Top 11

So It's time for So You THINK You Can DANCE Season 7! It's been a while since the boring Season 6, the "Fall" season. (There must be something in the whole feng shui thing because that season was blah.) It was not particularly memorable, the only things that I can remember are Ashley's creepy lipstick, Jakob Karr and... Rasul? Oh, Russell and his Santa Claus costume. Hmm... Anyhoo, let's go straight into the recap.

First of all, it's really a joy to see the all stars back on the show, particularly Allison from Season 2. She was the girl who did the amazing Shane Sparks routine to Sexy Love with Ivan (a.k.a the umbrella dance, which in my opinion is still the best lyrical hip hop piece on the show). She also did the cool Alex Da Silva's Argentinian Tango routine (it was the red item with all the kicks below the crotch thing), and when she left the show she did this emotional solo piece in which she hugged Travis Wall (who's now one of the highly celebrated choreographers on the show) which misled me into thinking that there was something going on between them and that Travis was straight.

It's also great to see Mamma Mia back, although her first piece last week about Time/Journey featuring Alex Freaking Wong, Billy Freaking Bell and Ade What-The-Freak-Is-His-Last-Name was a major disappointment. You could have just put the three of them into three separate rooms and it would look like as if they were doing three different solo pieces. I didn't like it. And Mia is now a permanent judge on the panel together with Nigel and Shankman. What happened to Mary Murphy? Perhaps they sent her to get a thesaurus since, I don't wanna be mean, but she had been repeating what she said over and over and over and over again. Way too much! Lil C should really give her his thesaurus.

Enough about the judges, let's get into the dances!

First up was Billy Bell, and together with Lauren he did a Tyce's broadway number to Footloose. It looked very high school-ish which totally suited his persona. I just wonder whether he would be able to handle the more intense styles such as the Paso Doble and Krumping because Billy reminded me a lot of Kupono from Season 5: scrawny, a bit effeminate and very very young-looking. Kupono's Paso Doble with Randi was a catastrophe of epic proportion, but then again, the judges loved Billy, so may be they would give him all the more "friendly" styles. (I mean Ms yoga/ballerina Melissa from Season 5 didn't do a single hip hop item throughout the season and was given Sytycd's very first pointe-work together with Ade, can I say rigged much?)

Next was Adechike, who did a Travis Wall's number which was something about sex in the office, which kinda reminded me a bit of Chun's Danz People Recital item (concept-wise). I have to agree with the judges that he was giving empty technique (nicely said Mia!), and not enough performance. I gotta say though, the video package talked about him taking off Kathryn's heel and they made such a big deal about it, but when I watched the item, that part was so~so minor that it made me a bit sad for him. I mean, if he had to depend on such lame taking-off-the-heel problem to show his fun side, that spoke volumes for his TV personality (or the lack thereof). And I'm not a fan of his military-style answers ("yes ma'am", "yes sir").

Next was Christina, and her Sonya's jazz routine. Not a fan. She looked too much of a gold fish that her character (which was supposed to be a snake) was utterly not believable. Mark was fantastic in the item. Overall, it felt too posy wosy for me. The song was horrible too. Up next was Jose Ruiz, the "homo, but confident" BBoy who had been blowing the judges away since Vegas week. It thought the item was ok, there wasn't something special or memorable about the item. The video package with Nappytabs Dumo was louder than the actual item. Next was Melinda, the tapper, and she danced the Jive with Pasha from season 4. (I'm sorry if it feels as if I'm rushing, but some of the items were really just blah, blah and more blah.) The judges criticised her for her technique, but I don't the Jive to begin with, so I can't really be bothered about whatever happened in the item.

Finally, Alex Wong and Allison, with Sonya's Hallelujah. It was by far the best of item of the night, but by no means that this item was the "best item ever performed on Sytycd stage anywhere in the world." Mia's comments were stretched a tad too far I think. Allison was the BOMB! I felt that she alone carried off the item with her performance because truth be told, you don't really see much of Alex's facial expression during the item. Sure, his techniques were hands-down flawless, but without Allison this item would not have been a huge success. Back-paddling a bit, I hope that they would let Allison do the hip hop items, especially if they were lyrical (recall Sexy Love?) because I can't imagine Comfort being able to hit it off and create another Bleeding Love or No Air, and I DO wanna see more of such hip hop home-runs.

Next was Alexie. She did Butterfly by Jason Mraz. Cool song, cool concept, but sadly, nothing cool about the execution. I hated her hair and make-up for the item, she should have been made more sensual and organic, say if she had her hair down completely, she would have been less "cute-sy." Next was Ashley and Neil. Some love contemporary item, already been done a million times, not exciting enough. Ashley had a voice of robot and a personality of one as well. Not memorable. Next was Robert, and he did some African dance with Courtney. The item was well danced, but I hated his personality. I felt that he was too in-your-face reality-TV personality (the same applies to Melinda as well), and he looked like he was a cross between Woody from Toy Story and Edvard Munch's The Scream (google for photos!), too fakey fakey for my liking.

Last two (finally!!!) were Lauren Froderman, whose solo in Vegas week I love love love, and Kent Boyd. I don't really get the whole Lauren not knowing how to be sexy. I mean, look at her audition piece and Vegas week solo. The former was about seduction, and she said it herself that her style was more sexy, albeit PG-sexy, so... what's her problem? It felt to me that she wanted to make it seem as if she struggled, thus lowering our expectations, thus it would be easier (?) for her to blow us away during the performance show. Hmm... curious. Anw, Kent's item was ok, he was probably the contestant with the most personality, although it did feel a bit contrived at times, but in those few times where it felt genuine, he was sorta endearing. Throughout the whole Cha Cha routine, the thought that kept popping in my head was that Anya and he looked like a lady mistress devouring her boy toy. Yikes!

So yeah, that's it! Heard Alexie was cut. No response whatsoever.

Haha. So till next week, ciao!

Time Capsule

Alright, it's been seven aeons, three christmases and five birthdays since I blogged the last time, but for what it's worth, I have attempted several times to post something interesting (does it ever get interesting, this blog? No.) but it just never got posted because either my mother wanted to shove more food down my throat, or I had to run for some dance practice, or there were seven hundred bags lying around that I had no idea where to store during the hols. In short, I was a mess and I had no time. There have been several things that crossed my mind, and were digested and verbal vomited and cancelled off, so it gets a bit boring for me now to go through them again in great detail, so I'll just recap them real quick and move on.

Results release, BUM-mer! I gotta admit was a nervy wreck the night before, simply because I knew (dear God, I so knew) that things didn't go swimmingly during the preparation/mugging period, especially for legal effing theory. (There's even a post to attest this debacle.) Luckily, my grades were good enough to keep me tapping into the tax-payers' money fund. It was a huge relief, especially since I was planning to see my mum after roughly one and a half years. It would be so ironic, no tragic, if I saw her and suddenly said 'Hi mum, yeah, I'm back... and now you gotta squeeze 11k from your pocket annually to pay for my school fees.' You know, it's just not the kind of hello that you wish you tell your mum after having not seen her for seven decades.

Anyhoo, my Indon trip was awesome. I had some doubts about it (I gotta be honest) in the beginning, just because we moved to a higher place, a smaller place (a.k.a an apartment) and I wasn't sure whether I could make myself comfortably at home with all the changes. Nevertheless, other than that everything else were pretty much same-ol-same-ol. The air was still heavy with cigarette smoke, my younger brother was still the biggest ass in the house (no pun intended), my mother still thought I was too skinny for my own good (something that most you people here might beg to differ), my dad still liked to talk to me about life, the future and the like, and my older brother was the nocturnal, elusive creature that he had always been. On a lighter note, Jakarta was a shopping haven. Two thumbs up!

Next is Seriously at Dance Xplosion. I was so glad that we ended on a high note there, although one of the little moments that literally ambushed and made such an impression was when someone (I'm really sure who it was) said something like 'Just dance, you've gained the experience already.' I was like, how true! It doesn't really matter victory or no victory, either way you would not become a better or lousier dancer. There is absolutely no difference between you three seconds before they announce the winner and three seconds after, you are still the person who has gained the experience and grown (hopefully) from it. There's really some truth wisdom nugget there.

The talk about dance always dampens my mood by one notch, and for someone who has depression as a default mode of existence, this can be clinical. However, dance now is a whirlpool from which I can't escape (not that I ever wished to ever do), but somehow I feel now like I'm drowning. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'things are not going swimmingly' huh?

Jumping to the realm of choreographing is not a walk in the park either. I finally figured out what my problem was last night. I think when I choreograph something, it's a lot like writing a composition, so it is very difficult for other people to copy my style of writing and write it the way I do. On the other end of the spectrum, there's a choreographing style that is much like doing math homework, and this is not to mean that one style better than the other, well at least, not necessarily so. When you do math homework, you exercise due care and attention (pardon the legal jargon) to make sure that you get the right answer, that you tick all the right boxes. So it doesn't make it inferior in terms of standard and difficulty, but somehow it comes across as just more straight-forward and obvious. A '2' is a '2', and will never be a '3'. Meanwhile when you write something, some people might write 'a' as 'a' while others write it as 'a'. They all mean the same thing, but somehow the picture is different. I'm not even sure whether I make any sense now, but I just feel that I wished I could choreograph like that. It would be easier, less emotionally taxing on me, but until that time comes, I guess I could only dream of my B+ math homework and settle for my C- composition.

Something There Is That Doesn't Love A Wall

Therefore I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

- Mending Wall, Robert Frost

Something there is that loves a wall to heart,
That finds solace hiding in its shadow—
A sentinel that whispers lullaby in the night
And kisses the heart when it flutters.

I live in darkness, an asylum where my back rests,
When the light outside is too bright
And my pride too bruised to fight.
On the flip-side the cold air burns;
There lies a mystery I dare not learn.

Now and again I try to gamble,
One step, over and beyond, I soon stumble,
And I hide behind my father's saying
"Good fences make good neighbours."

My wrinkled face forms into a smile—
Still I'm kept safe, kept a secret.

God Doesn't Make Mistakes

"When I’m dancing, and I’m dancing, and I’m in the zone, that’s the closest that I’ve ever felt to God, in my life. I would never ask you to give that up. God doesn’t make mistakes. God’s made you a dancer. It’s not a mistake. It may not be your profession— but if it is your passion, continue."

Does The Heart Rejoice Only When It Pops?

Do fish stop swimming when they tire?

Do ants stop work when it's Sunday?

Do we stop hurting when we cry?

Do they stop worrying when they play?

No.

No.

I don't know.

I know it's a No.

Does the radio relish the quiet when unplugged?

Does your iPod devour the silence when it stops?

Does one still smile when he runs out of luck?

Does the heart rejoice only when it pops?

Observing The World In (Almost) Utter Silence

Much to the collective relief of the population, the Universe had finally given me a whoop-ass by holding my voice hostage. For once, Calvin Magnus was put on silent mode, forced to vibrate violently each time I wanted to get my ideas across. I gotta say (and I believe some dare-I-say-unfriendly people would see eye-to-eye with me on this) it's kinda nice to shut up, or perhaps more specifically, to have a reason to shut up. (Does the previous sentence have a cynical overtone?) Yeah, it was cool to kinda just zip it: not talking to people unnecessarily, not having to reply people when my arsenal of witty comeback was exhausted, not having to entertain people when I didn't feel like it. It's like you could exist, yet observe, yet live, yet be in people's company, without having to labour and contribute to the social obligation of maintaining insipid conversations. Ok, this may come across more sardonic than intended, but what I am getting at is that it was nice to finally be on the receiving end, and to have an excuse (a tangible and physiological one at that) to be so. It was nice to see the world function independently, yet without having to remove oneself from the picture.

Another revelation, that was kinda fun, at least for me, was that: when you talk less, you listen more. Big surprise, huh? It's like when you talk, you see people's reaction in response to you comment (assuming that your comment is controversial/sarcastic/interesting/emotional/blahblahblah enough), and you do not really see the true person immanent in that respondent (respondee?). But in the absence of this prompt or external stimulus titillating such cerebrally-tainted spinal reflexes, people would have to dig deep into the sediments of their dormant personality and come up with things that are somewhat a true reflection of who they really are. Be it boring or interesting, it's highly intriguing to observe how some people haplessly struggle, how some blossom (unexpectedly on previously and seemingly barren personalities) and how some remain indifferent or ignorant. It's funny to see what they say and how they say it.

All the same, it's a bitch waking up in the morning with a knot in my throat. I also discovered that I've been surviving on fried food this whole time. (How can you not?) Anyway, this is another topic worth another blog post altogether. I need to rest more (so I've been told by self and others for the umpteenth time). My body is really crumbling to smithereens, and to fall ill now is a no-no. Shucks, I don't even have the brain power to type anymore. Anyhoo, sorry for an abrupt ending.

Ciao!