CODE:EDGE at Zouk, 15 December, 7pm

I attended the dance competition, CODE:EDGE at Zouk last Saturday. This dance competition was held by Studio Wu and Dance 2XS. Dance 2XS gave cash prizes scholarships to Dance 2XS to the winners of both the Solo and Group Category. The judges for this competition were Patrick Chen, Gigi Torres, Lee Daniel, Patrick Loo and Sheila Cheong.

I feel lucky to be able to attend this competition. It was fun to identify familiar faces, dancers who are/were Patrick’s students, dancers whom I have saw in competitions and dance instructors from dance schools. This was definitely one of the events not to be missed by people from the Singapore dance scene.

My friends and I secured a place near the entrance, above the dance floor and near to the staircase leading to the dance floor. The dance floor was small and the stage is small too. The dance floor as quite crowded, so we decided to stay at the second floor. Though I wear high heel boots and probably can see the competitors, I don’t wish to squeeze with those people and decided to stay with my friends.

I saw Patrick walked passed us. So I suggested to Eileen and called him. We called him quite loudly while he was walking down the stairs. He got a shock and replied “Yo!!!” He turned and saw us and said “Don’t give me heart attack.” Haha. I seldom see Patrick wears denim jacket and jeans. So when I saw him wearing denim jacket, jeans and a cap, it looked as if he has lost weight. Maybe because he always wears lose t-shirt and track pants.

The host for the night was Sheikh Haikel. As usual, he was as funny as ever and created a ‘high’ atmosphere before the competition.

The competition started at around 8pm. It started with a few dance performances by students from Studio Wu, O School and Patrick’s students (current and ex-students from NUS and NTU). Patrick taught some of the choreo in these dances at our classes.

Zaihar started the solo category dance competition, followed by the rest like Eve, Yuri, Brian etc. I saw a couple of new faces. This is good as there is new blood in the S’pore dance scene. The competitor with the most supporters is Yutaki. He has many fans! I think they are his students. His fans hold his posters. Haha! This is the first time I saw Yutaki danced. He’s good. From the way he dances, it seems like he knows other types of dances like jazz besides hip hop. He’s creative too, by taking a small part of the “881” song. Patrick must have loved it! (^.^)

My long awaited Group category started after the solo category. Some of the choreography from a few of the groups did not attract me. So I simply switched off or went toilet (same for solo). Some were really good! I cheered loudly for D’ATO (pronounced as D.A.TO), the group which Justis is in. Eileen was rather surprised that I was there to cheer for Justis. Anyway, D’ATO’s outfits were cool and attractive. I guess it must be Awi’s works. I am so happy to see them danced lyrical hip hip. In fact, only 2 groups in this competition danced lyrical hip hop. It’s so difficult to dance well in lyrical hip hop. You got to hit at the lyrics and essence. Most of the dance teams played safe by doing the usual hip hop and adding in some gimmicks. It’s not what I really hope to see. I just find that D’ATO is so cool and admire their courage to do lyrical hip hip in the competition.

The selection for the solo category was rather obvious. It’s not difficult to guess who will be shortlisted for the battle. Zaihar, Eve, Brian and Yutaki were shortlisted for the battle. Eve and Yutaki were in the same group while Zaihar and Brian were in the same group. Yutaki was obviously better than Eve with the attacks. The judges could not determine whether to chose Zaihar or Brian as both just attacked and did not give each other a chance to rest. Finally Zaihar won the battle. He did not have much time to rest and have to battle Yutaki. The judges could not decide who to pick after the first round of battle as both of their skills are good. So Yutaki and Zaihar have to battle again, and this time the judges decided based on who can make use of the music. Zaihar won the competition! Congrats! He was so emotional that he immediately jumped down to the stage to hug, his girlfriend? The whole Zouk was filled with cheers and applauses.

To our surprise, Patrick Chen announced that since Yutaki is so good, he is willing to fund the scholarship to Yutaki. Yutaki is so lucky to go LA! Patrick and Gigi did askd Zaihar and Yutaki to continue dancing.

Patrick Chen, Gigi Torres and Daniel Lee gave their group and solo performances. I like Patrick Chen and Gigi Torres’s dancing, especially Patrick Chen’s dancing. He’s good. When he danced lyrical hip hop, I was like ‘Wow!”

Time for the Group category announcement. D’ATO won the “TAGGER'S MOST STYLISH GROUP AWARD.” (^.^/) “Little Red Riding Hood”, led by Seow (NUS former dance captain) won the second runner up.

When Sheikh announced “D’ATO” as the first runner up, I was disappointed. (>.<) I would really want them to be the winner…. The winner is “La Fuse,” a group of girls. Their dancing skills were good but I don’t really like it as they danced girl moves. I don’t like girl moves. Their performance was entertaining and it was rather safe as it’s the normal hip hop style. They took part in “Overdrive” last year but heard their members got injured and it affected their performance. D’ATO felt so happy for them and jumped with joy when “La Fuse” was announced. I was, not that joyful though. The competition ended by another round of performance by “La Fuse.” I was not keen to watch them again actually… Anyway, it was the fact that the judges picked them. Overall, I enjoyed watching the competition. The standard was really high. Patrick Chen did say that someone told him that S’pore has no dance enthusiasts and he said this is not true. I totally agree. The problem is only that we need more talents and the S’pore society to recognize this group of people.

I look forward to the better future of our dance scene. Cheers!