Award Ceremony at Xenbar Competition, Dec 2005

About Salsa... "it totally changed my life"

My gosh, I never really understood the full extent of those words till I started dancing Salsa. Talk about a full-bodied inside-out makeover! Personally I think Xenbar n Teacher Ong contributed a lot to this change. It's not just Salsa per se, but the people at Xen, the stupid things we do, the very fact that we have a place to just muck around, train when we want, sleep, bathe, play x-box (and now the guys are going into online game too- XCC corner: Xenbar City/Country Club -> Xenbar Computer Club??).

Xen's like a home:
cozy, comfortable, cluttered and loved by many...

Maybe we should name XCC to be Xenbar cozy Corner! I mean, dammit!, I can sleep on the massaging chair wif my mouth hanging wide open like an Orang Utan and no one cares! Haha... My deepest darkest secret... (remind me to pray b4 I sleep tt nobody mistakes it for a damn funky-lookin' garbage bin)

And just for your information, I LIKE clutter.

All About Clutter clutter clutter clutter clutter
Call it a quirk if you like, but I think clutter shows something about you: you have a lot of things to do that is so fun and enriching that you have no time to pack!! Haha... More important, it shows that your home is lived in. That there are real people messing up the place, there is life going on, not an empty nest you inhabit every night coz there's no place to go to. I think this was influenced from the Joy Luck Club (Waverly and her child). Blame it on Sec4 Lit... But it kinda stuck with me when my teacher said it. Then again, you could say tt I'm a messy creature, which I dun totally deny. I paraphrase: it's good and disciplined to keep a home clean, but clutter and mess is not all that bad. It show's that you're having fun!

Back to Xenbar: the best school in the world

We've got everything here: costumes, masks, hats, shoes, video screen, gym set, chicken wings, shower, bed, blanket, 3 studios, make up, colored hair wax, posture strap, dvds... All the facilities you need to train and be good.
We've also got all the classes you need: Afro-Cuban, Performance, Shine, On 2, Rueda, Yoga, Isolation, Spin, Stretch, Hip Hop, Belly, Sensual, Ballet, Jazz... All set up with the goal to improve our Salsa dancers... Hmmm... Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, the most important thing: BASIC CLASS EVERYDAY!! (dun get me started on that) And it's so convenient... All the Salsa classes are modular so if I decide that I wanna start learning today, I can join it this week. I dun hafta wait until twenty-something of July or September for the series of classes to start again.

Seriously, it's the ambience of the place. It's a place of healthy competition, lots of laughter, a pyramid of chicken wings and where we can work hard but luff all the way. Yeah sure, it's no Salsa Palace like Union Square, it's far from it in fact. But if you ask me honestly, I don't want a grande ballroom where everytime I step on the dance floor, there are a billion and one people with their eyes safety-pinned on me, calculating and analyzing everything I do. I want a cozy hideaway where I can stick my tongue out when I feel like it (pant, pant, woof!), crawl around everywhere, find the eucalyptus tree to koala... (tt's the full time job of a koala, by the way... They are only awake for 4 hours of the night. The rest is spent in blissful slumber on a eucalyptus tree). Isn't that what life is all about anyway? Living your life. Like scratching your back when it itches: it feels good.

That's what I like about Xen. There is no condemning judgment; there is a lot of forgiveness. I'm not saying that we are so super duper angelic that we don't get on each other's nerves, it happens. But we try not condemn or spread unnecessary rumors around. Like what Teacher Ong says, we always try to see the heart, if the person is sincere. And we practice forgiveness. At least I do. Practice it. I've not mastered it yet, but I'm trying hard! One thing that I learned when I teach: I seldom get angry with someone, but I get disappointed often. And I do get very frustrated. It's very heart-breaking sometimes when you see the potential of the student and try to give him the most important things that you know, but he has pre-decided to do things his way and cannot meet his goal. It's like you have the key to open the door but he refuses it and keeps banging his head against it to force it open.

I guess Teacher Ong, as alwiz is rite on the mark when he says that the teachers are important because they know the road. They have been through the process and achieved the goal (and also helped many others to do so), so they know what path you have to take, they know what is the most important thing you have to do to get there and the miraculous thing is that they can show you the road in the darkness. Damn bloody important. What takes a normal person 2 years to achieve can take you 3 months. I know. I've done it, and I haven't stopped yet, I'm still getting better, and I still have so so much to learn. THAT's why I love Xen!!! I was so thoroughly blessed to go to Xenbar to learn Salsa. I was blessed with such a high calibre teacher who gives us so much. =) Of course, I'm not saying that other schools do not have good teachers, in fact I think they are all pretty good (even though I did not train under them). I'm just saying that I Love my school. I think it's the best. My subjective opinion based on true facts. Haha!!

Koala Koala..