I was invited to the BIG GROOVE 2010, a dance concert on Sunday night by a local dance institution called O School and in all honesty I really didn’t know what to expect.

I’ve been to my fair share of plays, dramas, recitals, stage shows, and other dabbles into the sophisticated and creative world of the arts but never have I been to a Dance Concert perse’, barring the secondary school ones, which were mighty cringe worthy moments. To me, dance is all about looking cool and moving in tandem with the music, nothing more and nothing less.

But last night’s event literally, figuratively, and metaphorically… blew me away, and changed my perception of the artistic genre completely.

I was told before the event that there were going to be international acts from places such as Japan and the U.S. and i thought, “HEY, seen one, and you’ve seen them all…”

boy oh boy how wrong I was… THEY WERE FRIGGIN AMAZING!!!

In the 4 hours or so that I spent at the tremendously well equipped Singapore Expo Hall 8, I witnessed styles, moves, and jumps that I never before thought were humanly possible to execute.

It’s not just about coordinated movement, each swivel and step tells a whole story of its own. It’s one thing synchronizing your moves to the beat, it’s a whole other story doing it with style and finesse, which is exactly what some of the crews did- namely Asian American Dance Group Quest Crew.

It was their first ever overseas international gig… but if you were there last night you wouldn’t even be able to tell… It was like witnessing Seven Asian Versions of Justin Biebers in full glory of their screaming fans. I could have sworn that the Roof of Singapore Expo Hall 8 had been blown off it’s hinges by all the screaming, for I saw the glimmer of a few stars along with a crescent moon… or maybe there was a national flag on stage. Hey National Day is less than three weeks or so away you know.

Besides the point, they were absolutely mindboggling-ly brilliant.

Watching them was like watching life imitating art, if I were to be alarmingly unoriginal.

If you doubt my sincerity, then you could have just asked the guy seated two rows behind me. Watching the Quest Crew perform for him must have been like experiencing a prolonged and neverending orgasm. For a good 10 minutes of the Quest Crew performing their dazzling moves on stage, some of which made me wonder if they had gravity defying shoes and necks made of titanium… the OOHHHS and AAHHHHS and OOORRRSS from that guy in particular, along with the thousands in attendance, were just beyond belief. I could have sworn that someone was *servicing* the guy, from all the noise he made. Quest Crew, were that good… they were at least 50 metres away and yet they could still make this guy… arrive, without use of a better word.

What I realized last night was that a good dance performance is very much like a great date.

Things that you don’t expect to happen actually happen. There’s humour, which makes you laugh and eases you into comfort. There are even particular moments that  make you weak In the knees, takes your breath away, and opens up your eyes to entirely new horizons.

And of course, like a great date, there’s always a happy ending.

In particular last night was Quest Crew’s Encore performance and O Crew’s finale.

Dance isn’t just about the performing arts, there’s a complete lifestyle behind it, along with it’s own personal stories, experiences, and emotions.

Feeling, freedom of expression, poetry in motion, the works, as cliched as one can sound it’s really the truth, and I saw it on stage last night… behind the electro lighting and booming sounds, there were real human stories behind every single dancer on stage, be it the MTV dance crew winning performers who travelled halfway across the world to a hall in the East of Singapore, to the Local dancers who struggle to find proper backing for years until now, or the Cambodian dance group who were formed to fight hardships of poverty, gang violence, and drugs.

Dance is one happy place for all these people, and I was one of the lucky few in the Expo Hall to witness them shine.

Special mention to the people behind the sound and lighting effects as well. The whole production was like one intricately and meticulously planned show, complete with High Defination TV Cameras, overhead Video Cranes, massive projected screens, amazing state of the art lighting that could rival any rock concert, and speakers that made my groin vibrate with unrivalled tremor. You know that a sound system is top notch when your gonads start to shake.

Photos of Selected Standout Dance Crews Below. Along with Videos of the Amazing Quest Crew, if you want your mind to be blown away, I suggest you scroll below and have a look. Remember to keep your jaws locked or you might drool on your table.

If you liked what you read you can see more here…

http://www.oschool.com.sg/TBG2010/concert.html

kudos to Jelaine and Kenny of O School  for making all this possible. Looking forward to next year’s show already.

O Crew (SINGAPORE)

Wrecking Crew Orchestra (JAPAN)

If You’re Happy and You Know Joyce, Clap The Boys (SINGAPORE)

Tags: events

This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 8:49 pm and is filed under events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.