Dragon dance in Bahau ^^

So our BIG BIG performance (as coach always put it.. ^^") was finally over. It's like reaching the climax or something.. the one performance we look forward to and dread at the same time. We trained for 2 hours everyday since Tuesday just for that. Mapped out all the moves in the routines and memorise it until we're even doing the dragon dance in our dreams. Practised each and every move to perfection. Nothing was left out, no mistake will be made.

If only everything always go according to plans, eh? Haha. As it turned out, we trained for 2 hours on Tuesday all right.. only that we barely had enough members to practice properly. It rained on Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday night, cancelling all the training we planned. Yeah, how lucky we were. So we had to train on the day of performance itself, just before we leave for Bahau at 4pm (it's not really in Seremban, but Bahau as it turns out). And as if everything just had to make us screw up the dragon dance, there was an appointment for lion dance at 2.30pm (confirmed at the last minute). By the time we finished the lion dance it's already 3.30pm. O.o

And all the training we planned, all the dragon dance routine we're supposed to memorise, all the practising every move to perfection, all that were crammed into an hour of training, just hours before the actual performance ^^". Haha. We're almost used to this already.. everytime there's dragon dance we always plan and practise everything at the last minute. *sweats*

So after the intensive crash course in dragon dance, we're off to Bahau in a 14-seater Mercedes. I've never seen a van with that many seats before haha. Took us 2.5 hours to reach there from Cheras, even had to go through a mountain road (which was just like the road to Cameron.. endless bends ^^"). It was already 7.30pm by the time we reached.

The dragon dance was for some 'Pesta Tionghua' organised by MCA Daerah Jempol, and there were Wushu performance and lion dance too. Our dragon dance were split into two performances, the first and last. First was the tian guang (daylight) performance, which were done under bright lights. Scrapped a few moves due to the probability we might screw up (one was the mei2 hua1, where the dragon was made to look like a 'blooming flower', the other was where half of the dancers jump onto the other half - dunno why we scrapped this.. we tried it a lot of times during the intensive crash course. This time i was the bottom fellar who's jumped on ^^". Thankfully Chua was lighter than he looked hehe). No major mistakes, the audience even gave an applause haha. But it was just ok la.. not really impressive or anything..

After that was some Wushu performance by the Selangor team (if i heard Coach right). Then it's the yue guang (night light) lion dance performance, done under UV lights. And that's when it became obvious to us how noobish our lion dance was haha ^^". They had 3 lions jumping onto stilts at the same time.. it was just damn impressive la. Wonder how long it'll take for us to reach that level hehe..

After lion dance it was our dragon's turn again, this time was yue guang dragon dance. As it was dark, funny things tend to happen. Even just as we were coming in haha ^^". The 'head' was short-sighted (which he admitted later) and nearly knocked down a UV light pole on the way in because he's mesmerised by the glowing dragon head lol. As each of us were following the head's every step, you can imagine each of us getting surprised to see the pole there, nearly knocking it down, pulling away just inches from it, one by one (though some didn't even realise the pole was there ^^"). The tail even knocked the pole a little bit, but thank god it didn't fall haha (the UV light pole was the lion dance team's.. we borrowed it coz we don't have enough UV lights).

And just before we end the performance, the head made a mistake coz he couldn't see clearly ^^". He was supposed to go under between me and Chua (who's behind me), but went under behind Chua instead (he even had time to say 'die..' just before he passed Chua haha. That totally caught us by surprise.. coz it was different from the move we practised. Some twists and turns later, we got the dragon back straight.. thankfully it was dark and the mistake ain't that obvious hehe. Heard our performance was ok.. Coach and the MCA reps were happy with it. Heck, it was good considering we only had an hour of training.. lol.

And thus end our BIG BIG performance, watched by hundreds of ppl ^^. It was really damn fun.. though my hands were damn tired after that. And even better coz i was doing it with a great team.. had lots of laughter with them around ^^. Supper in Sri Petaling after we finished, and then i'm back here. With less than 7 hours to our lion dance performance next morning. *sweats*. Some more last-minute appointments, according to Coach.

PS - Didn't get to take pictures coz i was doing the dragon dance, and they don't want us to take pictures of the lion dance (as it might affect their concentration.. and falling down from the stilts ain't gonna be pretty). So nope, no pictures.. =(

P.PS - i was wrong bout no more lion dance .. there's always last-minute appointments, as usual ^^"

Self note (for remembrance purpose)
Members present: Steven (Coach), Steven's brother, Steven's brother's friend, Wan Chieh, Sor Eng, Esther, Janice, Chua, Darren, Tong-ge, Rajah, Zhi Yong (MCA), Wen Chien (MCA), Rahman (lorry driver) and the Mercedes driver.
Dragon dancers (from head to tail): Steven's brother, Esther, Tong-ge, me, Chua, Wan Chieh, Janice, Sor Eng, Steven's brother's friend.
Mercedes seating (left to right, from front): Zhi Yong, driver, Steven, Wen Chien, Wan Chieh, Sor Eng, Janice, Esther, Steven's brother's friend, Steven's brother, Tong-ge, Chua, Darren, me.