THIRUVILAIYAADAL NITE 2009

Apologies on the blog being super quiet for the past few weeks. We were contemplating on closing the blog due to certain reasons but after seeing that you guys do want reviews, we thought against it. Plus, the biggest dance event this year is right around the corner. We hope to keep the hype up for Danz Arena Y2K9!

THIRUVILAIYAADAL Night

1st place – Pretty Boys

2nd place – Crew Voltage

3rd place - Ragazza

We kind of figured that most teams taking part were doing so to put up their Danz Floor piece. And we were right! 80% of the items put up were repeats from Danz Floor.

Pretty Boys

3 words. Wow. Wow. WOW. You (shirtless) boys certainly caught out eyes! We were yearning to re watch your item since we first saw it during Danz Floor and might we say, that is one impressive piece! Choreography was astoundingly new. Frankly, after seeing the skills of groups like AcidHouz, Killabeez, Aerocratz etc, we didn’t really think that things could get any better. But these pretty boys have really proved us wrong! Although the concept is one that is running on overdrive now (love), we feel as though the execution was flawless. From the hydrogen heart shaped balloons to the synchronized somersaults to the 10 second dress-change, you boys kept us captivated not once, but twice in a row, even though we’ve seen your item before. Keep it up all the way boys! There was no doubt in our heart that you guys had clinched the trophy and that you guys did! Well done! Our eyes are peeled for your next competition so keep rocking it!

Crew Voltage

The first thing that this group screams out once they are one stage is their vibrant energy! We’ve seen it once (Danz Floor) and we’ve seen it again. The collaboration between both sexes in the group has been well worked out thanks to their on stage chemistry. With their high beat song (Oru Kal, Oru Kannaadi) and charismatic charm, you people had us screaming from the moment you got on stage! Once in a while, here and there, coordination and positioning were abit off, but we guess we can close one eye on that. And that’s only because your positive energy knocks all these small negative facts right off stage! Another interesting thing that this team possess is that their female counterparts dance AS vigorously as their male counterparts. Now, it’s quite rare to spot such a thing so we were quite pleased to actually see it. Awesome energy CV! And we really liked your ending pose as well! Congratulations on 2^nd place!

Ragazza

We’ve seen their performance before for Danz Floor and when we heard they were up, we were cringing. After what we’ve seen during Danz Arena Y2K8, we really had our hopes up high buy alas! Their Danz Floor piece really disappointed us. Enna aachu girls? First of all, the item they had was one they had used during a previous competition, some years ago. We automatically recognized their costumes, as seen from that previous competition. The 2^nd part of their dance was extremely… how do we say this?... Messy! The 2^nd part of their dance was extremely messy! We understood the concept they had on hand but execution was, we don’t mean to say this, but it was bad. BUT, having said that about their Danz Floor performance, we did see a couple of changes for Thiruvilayaadal Nite, one of which was thee fabric that was used to represent water, we think. The physical aspects to the second part of their piece was truly a feat, considering that the team consists of only females! Can we hear ‘GIRL POWER!’? Although it still wasn’t all that there yet, it was certainly better then what we saw for Danz Floor. We still think that you girls have the capacity to give us better judging from your Danz Arena Y2K8 piece and we hope that you don’t let us down during Danz Arena Y2K9. Whatever it is, congratulations on winning 3^rd place!

Special Shout Outs!

RSR

LADIES! Or should we say sexy ladies! What an awesome effort we saw on stage! Now this is what an all girls team is about! It’s about exuding sexiness and carrying out the dance altogether in one wrapped up package. And guess what? You girls nailed it! We’ve seen your dance during Danz Arena and instantaneously fell in love with it! Whether we fell in love you girls, or fell in love with the dance, I think we will let the audience have their own say. Bloody awesome costumes with nice jingly bells attached to them! It was evident that their theme (Modern Broadway) was infused into their costumes and choreography making it what we call a ‘complete’ competition item. Well done girls! Danz Arena is around the corner, so what do you have in store for us? All the best!

TidBits

We are finding it extremely hard to write reviews especially when there are so many competitors for just one night. A good example would be both Danz Floor and Thiruvilayaadal Nite. With 18 and 13 teams respectively, it’s close to impossible to write on everyone thus we seek your understanding.

DGeneration did a performance extremely identical to one we’ve seen on Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva. We are not pointing any fingers here, but having the same song and concept, it is kind of hard to conclude otherwise. BUT, energy and expressions were flawless. Flawless. Good on your guys. We bet that if this team injects a little bit of thought and originality, these (wounded) boys can go far with their passion! So live it up, fella’s!

Chakraz! We’ve given our comments on their Suthuthe Suthuthe performance once before, so we shall not do it again. It’s true that we love that item but the same item thrice in a row does make it ‘jelak’ however nice it is! Hopefully it’s the last time we see our poor Chakraz girls being whirled in the air like UFO’s!

And last but not lease, how can we forget last year’s THIRUVILAIYAADAL nite winners, SYNCHRONIX! They gave us a power packed guest performance as did Agni Reloaded! Fantastic energy fella’s! You boys really kept the spirit up till the very end of the event!

Uyir Thuli Sangamam

After 3 whole months, Dance 2 This is back!

Many apologies for disappearing like that. 2008 was a disastrous year for competitions. After Dhool came and went, all other competitions got wiped out due to either exhaustion or fear of not being able to make quota. Having said that, we will be starting afresh from this year and we will try our best to review as many dance competitions as we possible can. With that, lets get on to the first ever competition of 2009!

Uyri Thuli Sangamam

Winners of the night
1st Mega Geniez
2nd Aarthiz
3rd Sovietz

Mega Geniez

Mega Geniez, mega geniez, mega geniez. Where do we start? Their whole concept seems lifted off from somewhere. Now, we don't mean to criticize blindly, but really, what were they thinking? Maina maina followed by the cuppy cake song? We've seen Hey mina and Barney before this and truth be told, both performances looked an awful lot similar. From their costumes to their concept and to their 'cuteness'. C'mon boys, whatever happened to originality? But for what its worth, their energy level and execution was brilliant, so if these boys could channel all their positive energy somewhere, we would be more then happy to appreciate them even more. Whatever it is, they were the champions for the night, so kudos to them!

Aarthiz

Ladies ladies ladies, you girls have outdone yourselves this time round! From the moment you ladies were out on stage, we couldn't pry our eyes away from you. What costumes and what choreography. Their whole piece seemed to revolve around the Arabic theme. And might we add, we loved the song selection (Muthu muthu from Mr Romeo). It was a nicely weaved together piece of performance you had there. We were rooting for you girls to have won, but coming in as runner up must have felt just as good. Fantastic work Aarthiz!

Sovietz

The Dance2This crew was really impressed by Sovietz's performance that night. With a unique concept, and fluid choreography to match Sovietz outdid themselves. Dressed in Roman outfits, these boys performed an expressive piece that deserved our full-on applause. Song piece was selected aptly for the dance so well done boys! We have our eyes on you for the upcoming competitons.

Simashree

The common contemporary battle between good and evil. Its been in our kollywood movies for years and recently, it has infiltrated into our dance ground. Whats even more predictable, good won over evil. With concerns to Simashree, expressions were played out nicely on both their parts. Having said that, choreography got a little too messy on stage at a certain point of time. Also, they had these props on stage that weren't functioning as they were supposed to but the worse mistake anyone could do WHILE performing was adjusting them to look better. Dancers backstage who were rectifying the props were made visible and that distracted the audience's attention from the dance. Overall, their dance wasn't too bad, but it could have been polished
a little better. Keep the passion going Simashree!

Electricuted Crew Voltage



Enna boys? Neengae sonna maathiri, current appadi adikilae. Voltage kammai ayiducho? Just like Magic of Faces, choreo was way too common. Choosing an appropriate song is a vital factor for dance and ECV's remix was almost inaudible. Sound effects overpowered the song making it sound very messy. All in all, it was too predictable a dance but ECV shouldn't take this as a negative review. It is after all their first performance. With this lets hope they do better for their next appearance where ever it may be.

Chocolate

A couple of familiar faces were spotted in Chocolate. Without saying, they had quite abit of supporters on hand. The chocolate wasn't as sweet and savory as we expected them to be. Energy level was there, choreography wasn't. We weren't feeling it boys! And with a couple of experienced dancers, we really expected it to be something more out of the norm. But it was exactly normal! These type of performances caused an uproar during the late 90's and early 2000, but it is getting a little too old now. Safe tosay, we din like this brand of chocolate too much!

Magic of Faces

The first item to kick off the competition. 5 boys ages ranging from 14 - 18. From their costumes, to their dance, it was clear cut that these boys were new to the dance scene. Choosing their 'horror/ghost' theme, they executed their number a little too... what do we say? typical? Yes, the word is typical. Choreography was too common, steps we've been seeing for years. A little more brainstorming would have done the trick, better luck next time fellas!

Last but not least Synchronix & Aerocratz did guest performances for the night. They sure lifted up the energy of the crowd! Well done guys!

Part 3 of Part 3

Alas! Aero boys decided to reply us today after a long time! They sent us an email earlier this week, apologizing for the delay in their reply due to the vast amount of work they had up in store for them. However late, they still decided to reply so, thank you Aerocratz!

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AEROCRATZ

No one knew them when they first came into Dhool ’08. “Oh, just another old boy group”, everyone thought. Little did they know that these very boys would storm the stage and win the prized cup! Portraying significant societal issues in all of their dances, Aerocratz have indeed created a niche for themselves. With their sharp movements and flawless expressions, these boys danced right into the hearts of their fans. Alrmed with a revolutionary vision and brilliant choreography by Nagen, we are sure that these boys have become, like AcidHouz and Diversity, household names in the Singapore dance scene. So without ado, Aerocratz!

First and Foremost, on behalf of Aerocratz I, Hari, would like to express our deepest and sincere apologies for keeping everyone waiting for this interview. All of us were really busy during this festive month. Therefore please pardon us.

Let’s begin...

1. How long did the process of conceptualizing the ideas to executing the whole piece take?

We had these ideas for quite some time. However we didn’t get the proper opportunity to reveal our dream of showcasing our ideas and talent. Dhool 08 was a golden opportunity for us but due to the time constraint we could only show our ideas vaguely.

2. How did this group come about? We understand that Aerocratz are made up of several established dance groups, but why this collaboration?

Firstly in Dhool 06/07 we were all part of the competition but in various dance groups such as Stepz, Anarchy 99, Acid Houz and Kali Dancers. However, most of our dancers are from Theestainerz. After gaining years of experience through Theestainerz and the competition, we decided to collaborate in this Dhool 08 to show our utmost standard of dancing.

3. Aerocratz had a mission. And that was to bring dance to a whole new level. And that is exactly what you boys have done. Where did the ambition to do so come from?

We prefer to say that it is our passion and our duty to bring our small indian community of dance to greater heights in Singapore. Furthermore, all of us had the same drive within ourselves to send out the messages we thought would make a difference in our community. Some issues that we touched on were discrimination (stereotyping), perseverance and lastly "nothing is impossible in the name of God".

Dance is a silent poetry which is not about impressing but expressing.

4. The songs that you guys choose are very apt for your scenarios. Who does the selection? And is does the song selection cause the idea or is it the other way around?

We work as a team to select the appropriate songs for the appropriate scenarios we had chosen. It’s either the idea we chose that suits the song or the song we chose suits the idea.

5. Its no secret that your costumes, just like your song selection, are big hits. Especially for their appropriate manner. Who comes up with them?

And again we would like to state that all our costume ideas are decided as a whole. Therefore, we use all our creative ideas to come up with the best costume for the chosen song.

6. What are your upcoming plans now that you boys have conquered Dhool?

This is our first step into our upcoming dance journey and like what we had promised, with the given opportunities we will strive harder to bring dance to greater heights n dimensions. Not forgetting to send out messages in every of our Aerocratz performances.

7. Lastly, anything to say to your fans out there?

Our every performance had a big risk involved. But our fans and the people who watched Dhool gave us overwhelming support and appreciated us which gave us more encouragement to take bold decisions as we moved on. Thus, we would like to thank all our fans, genuine supporters, friends and family and all those who appreciated what we did. Without all of Your support we would have been nothing. We would also like to thank our seniors from Theestainerz, Nagen, Seran and Bose who had confidence in us from day one. We will do our best for all our fans who have trust, confidence and faith in all of us. Your votes will not and did not go vain.

Lastly the true gift of dance is to touch, to move and to inspire.

There you have it! The 3^rd and final installation! We hope you guys have a more broader perspective of who our top 3 are and we wish EVERYONE all the best for their future tasks! So until the next competition, adieu everybody!

Happy Deepavali

Wishing our beloved Indian community a very
Happy Deepavali!!!

Our crew just arrived home after that spectacular countdown show and sure enough, we saw A - LOT of familiar faces dancing. We're quite happy to see everyone alive and kicking. To all those who brought us that wonderful show, crew to cameramen, thank you so much for sacrificing your midnight to entertain us. Well done folks!

*Many might be wondering why the Aerocratz interview is not up yet. The reason behind this is that our beloved champs haven't had the time to reply us back, but they say that they will in due time. Once they reply, be sure that the post will be up the following day.

Part 2 of Part 3

Here’s the next installment of short interview questions with our Top 3!

Killabeez

Since the beginning, these boys did not have a hard time clinching titles from various dance competitions, despite them being new as a group. Their ability to charm the audience with their pieces is truly remarkable. Although their journey in Dhool started off rather rough, it’s safe to say that these boys bucked up and did quite well in the end. Let’s have a closer look at what these boys have to say.

1. Coming in 2nd place is already a big deal. But beyond that, does Killabeez think that they could have done better? If yes, how so?

To be able to come up among the top 3 is definitely a big deal, amidst the tough competition and the pressure that surrounded us. At the same time, we tried not to keep high expectations and hopes within us. Being in the finals was indeed a big dream-come-true for us, and the only motive we had in the finals was to give the fans what they missed from us.

There is definitely a sense of regret for every dancer or dance group after each of their performance, the regret of not doing that performance better. Likewise, we had the regret too, but we definitely did our best and that’s the bottom line. Many would say we just did a performance we did before. But we intended to make well use of the given time to actually improved on a dance that we have only performed once, and we think it resulted quite well.

2. For your Quarter Finals, the majority of audiences and even a small amount of your fans were rather disappointed with your performance. What went wrong?

Atmosphere was new. The competition was new. We lack the experience and that hit us hard. First of all, we are extremely disappointed with ourselves with that performance. We admit, we weren’t that good in the quarters, but at the same time, we don't think we were that bad in that quarters overall. We may have got in by a tad bit of luck and votes, however, the judges comments were indeed indirectly hurting for us. It really woke us up and our semi finals performance was a result of this 'awakening'.

3. Your journey in Dhool started rocky but it ended smoothly. So how was the overall experience?

Overall experience was pretty good. We learnt alot of new things, not only as a group, but individually. This competition did gel up the group lots more. The bond grew strong and we developed a sense of looking at things in a different angle, in one perspective. And I am sure this experience is going to be helpful for us in the near future.

4. Now that Dhool is over and done with, what are your next steps in the dance scene?

Dhool was definitely a platform to media and we think that we achieved what we came here for. Next step would be to BUZZ the media with performances you wouldn't want to be missing.

5. Lastly, would you like to say anything to say to your fans?

First of all, a sincere thanks to each and everyone who has supported the hive since the start of this journey. Alot more to the crew and family itself that helped us throughout this journey. We did start off rocky and ended off with a high note. If you recall, each performance was planned such to prove our versatility that we are good in different areas/genres, which many groups didn’t make full use to showcase their talents. So whatever you have seen is definitely not the end, but the beginning to a new era. The FKB era. Lastly, ENNA BEEZ?? KILLABEEZ!! Always 1 Love, 1 Life, 1 Hive!!

With that, let’s wish the Beez all the best for their future endeavours! Keep stinging, Beez! Up in a couple of day we have our one and only Aerocratz! Stay tuned people!

Part 1 of Part 3

First and foremost, before we get down to business, Dance2This would like to congratulate:

Nanyang Polytechnic

in winning the cup for Aarathana ’08!

Coming in 2^nd and 3^rd are ITE Dover & Temasek Polytechnic respectively. Well done!

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It’s been a good 2 weeks after Dhool and all excitement has seemed to die down. Well, we are back for a few post – Dhool blues. In attempt to get the top 3 teams closer to their fans and audience, we sent out different sets of questions to them; about their experience, about their lessons learnt, and more. We aren’t posting all their replies at once so do keep checking this space out to see your top 3 team's replies!

And today, we are ecstatic to feature:

Agni Reloaded

As everyone remembers, it was these boys who snatched the 3^rd prize for Dhool ’08. Their charismatic boys, energetic moves and nose studs kept the audience wanting more. They have come a long way since we’ve first set eyes on them during Dhool ’06 and we sure are proud of these fella’s! Without further ado, lets ask them some spicy questions!

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1. Out of the top 3 teams in Dhool ‘08, only AR has previously been in the Dhool that was held in 2006. What are the major differences that you boys have faced as a group then and now?

The standards of dancing has changed tremendously over the years. During the previous Dhool, it was all about dancing itself. As far as we can remember, judges were not really into themes, concepts or the usage of props. But for this year’s Dhool, what they wanted was totally different. It was all about themes, concepts and being different. All the groups have improved so much and their much more creative. During our Dhool journey, it was hard to cope up with other competitors as they come up with awesome ideas and costumes. Overall, Dhool 2008 brought dancing in the Indian society to another level.

2. As evident as it is, AR’s specialty lies in your capability to put in so much of energy for an item and hold it with stamina. Any secrets behind this?

The secret behind this is just practice. Practice practice and practice ! Like the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Dhool 2008 has been really hard for us as most of us are in camp. Due to this reason, you see lots of new faces in this years Dhool.

3. Now that Dhool is over, what are your future plans and could you guys give more details about the upcoming Asuraz Thillai?

We would just continue what we love doing. Dancing has been our passion all this 6 years. We don’t dance for passion neither do we dance for fame. Dancing is a common passion among all our dancers which bonds us together. Despite being 2nd runner up for Dhool 08, it makes us no different. We'll still dance for upcoming competitions and shows. As for Asuraz Thillai, it's a competition not organised by Agni Reloaded. It's a competition organised by Nanyang Community Club. Some of our Agni Reloaded members are just helping the organisation out. Asuraz would be held on Dec 13th 2008. Do look out for our guest performance on that day itself. And let us see who walks away with the 1.7m 1st prize trophy. :)

4. All throughout Dhool ’08 (and even during Danz Arena) speculation has been that Agni Reloaded was being backed up by a well known choreographer. Any comments on this?

Lets get this straight. We all know that the public thinks that Ramesh from Rameshwara choreograph for us. That is so not true. Ramesh and us are just good friends. We see him as a mentor and he's someone we look up to in the dancing industry. Our choreography has got nothing to do with him. It's a little disappointing for us when we put our own hard work and the public thinks that someone else is choreographing for us. Dhool was a hectic period for us. We faced all the hardship by ourselves. It's all of us who choreographs our items on our own.

5. Lastly, do you have anything to say to all your die hard fans out there?

We would really thank all of those who voted for us and supported us through out our Dhool journey. We gave our best and we hope we didn’t disappoint any of our supporters. We hope you guys would support us all the way. If it wasn’t for you people, Agni Reloaded wouldn’t be around. Spice up your life with Agni Reloaded!

Well there you have it! Straight from the horse’s mouth! We thank Agni in responding to our mail. We hope you guys had fun reading their comments!

2-3 days from now, the next post will be up and it will be featuring Enna Beez? So keep tuning in! Till then everybody!