A GLEEful Workshop

Yeap, you saw it right. I've just attended a GLEE workshop. :) It's actually one of our latest addition of experiences in the RedRibbon Days family and I had the chance to go try it out. So I'm now officially a Gleek!

What really drew me to contact this performing arts school in the first place was not only the fact that it's a GLEE themed musical workshop, but also the fact that they get facilitators from the West End to run it! Isn't that awesome?! It's freakin West End! :D

When you were much younger, do you remember the things you aspire to do?

When we were kids, we will always say, "I wanna be a doctor! I wanna be a lawyer! I even had a silly cousin who said "I wanna be a garbage collector!" And he seemed pretty serious about it mind you. Hahaha. Well, I've always had many ambitions, and one of it was definitely to be a Broadway/West End star. Don't laugh laaah. :/

Although that ambition has changed now, I can't deny the fact that I still love the theatre, singing, music and well, the arts. Hence the reason why I am usually one of the few amongst friends who are willing to spend that extra cash on watching musicals, orchestras and even just being a part of a choir (yes, I am in a choir), for 6 years now.

I have to admit, I was feeling a bit iffy about attending this 6-days-workshop at first because it is mainly targeted for kids below 18. My worried mind had me picturing myself standing tallest and looking so sesat amongst little girls and boys. Or worse, the only one with a fully grown body and boobs! Oklah, boobs not that big but that's not the point! Anyways, but I thought, oh well, what the heck, life's too short, and just like the saying goes on my RRD T-shirt, "Life is a sum of experiences", and keeping that in mind, I decided to just go for it.

On the first day, I don't really know why but I had butterflies when I first entered the school. Maybe because I guess I didn't know what to really expect. As I walked to the entrance, all sorts of paranoid questions flooded my brain , "Will I enjoy it? Will this be a waste of my entire week? It's 6 days you know? Will I be the only 23 year old schmuck there amongst 8 years olds?". Will I, schmill I.

After being very warmly welcomed at the registration counter and meeting lovely Shanthini for the first time (the PIC whom I've been dealing with prior to this), I went straight up to the dance room where the workshop begins!

Before anything else lemme just explain a little bit on how the workshop works. All students will be divided into 3 groups - Juniors, Seniors A and Seniors B. This is basically divided by age, so I was in Seniors B.The facilitators for the Senior groups were Grace who will be handling dancing and Nish for singing.

Grace, Sue, me and Nish

Grace is the one from West End. And I was really so excited to meet her because she has been involved in one of the biggest musicals of all times, Cats and many others too like Oliver and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! I have to say, I really salute them, for their patience and their passion, because handling a bunch of children and making them learn and remember steps and lyrics to 4 performances really. isn't. easy. at. all! 4 performances in 3 days! That's insane! And you know how kids are, they're always either are just too playful, plain blur, hard to control or just have a very short attention span! But that's what makes them so cute! Lol.

Lil Kash whom I like to call bookworm. He's always so blur but he is definitely one of the cutest lil boys I've seen! I'm gonna miss this cutie pie!

Grace working her magic on the kids

You must be thinking, "Why only 3 days? Isn't this a 6 days workshop?" Well let me break it down for you.

Monday - Wednesday: Learn all the steps and songs

Thursday (Clean Up Day): Just to 'clean up' whatever parts of the performances that are still unsure or not very good. Sound check & 1st run

through on the stage.
Friday: Full Dress Rehearsals!

Saturday: PERFORMANCE

And you would think, that a workshop for kids will be easy for us adults. Here I thought, "Aiyaaahh... dance steps for kids, kacaang puteh laaaah...". Hehehe. Boy, was I wrong! Half the time through steps I'm be squeezing my brain juice dry on what step is next. In fact, some of the younger ones seem to remember the steps much faster than me! Malu sial~

And speaking of younger ones, you must be wondering whether my worst fear came true? Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes, I was the oldest there and no, because it was alright. :) There were 2 others who were 20 and the rest in their teens and tweens. And they are all lovely girls.

See? I kinda blended in pretty well right? Hehe.

Oh and I haven't told you what were the Glee numbers that we did, did I? Ok here goes, we did:
1) Lean On Me (singing number)

2) Vogue (dance number)

3) Bad Romance (singing & dance number): No pic yet sorry!

4) Jump (finale: singing & dance number)

All of us in pyjamas! This was fun! :)

I was glad that they had Lean On Me and Jump, because they were one of my favourites from Glee. When I heard that we were doing Bad Romance, immediately I thought, "Oh no... Gaga!" And immediately, my worried mind came up with another picture. A picture of my bosses and colleagues giggling non stop when they see me attempting to do Gaga! And you know how Gaga is, she is all pyscho, deranged and saucy at the same time. And that's so not Theing! Nooooooooooooo!

Haih, I guess situations like this had to come one way or another don't it? Being in theatre is precisely not about being you, it's about getting into a character! Every single tiny detail, from how you hold the fan or how you walk, it all matters. This definitely wasn't easy, so Grace really drilled us a lot on this aspect.

Although the entire workshop did not really focus much on technics as I had hope, but nonetheless, they focused on another very important value not only in theatre but everywhere else,- confidence. Being in a group with self-conscious girls all in their teens, you have to agree that confidence and self-esteem does play a huge role. Being a leader in a choir, and also a person who deals with confidence issues myself, I totally understand how it feels like for both sides of the party. I understand how frustrating it is sometimes to be the 'facilitator' that tries to bring people out of that shell. And on the other hand, I understand how it is actually so difficult to break out of that shell and not worry about what other people might think of you too. It is definitely not something that happens overnight, but it is certainly so important to instill this at a young age.

I can't say how glad I am to also see how much my Seniors B group have grown just in a span of a few days! From girls who just wouldn't even stand and hold a mic properly in singing, to women who 'gleeked out' like fashionistas in Vogue. Remembering the steps was also always one of the biggest problems, but on that day, everyone of us just gave our best and didn't have a problem in remembering the steps at all! :)

I'm so glad that I decided to go for this experience and in fact, didn't have an ounce of regret at all. I'm glad of not only of the things I've learnt and observe throughout this experience but also of the new friendships I've formed as well.

After experiencing this myself, I can confidently say that if I have kids, I will surely take them for summer workshops such as these because I can't describe how much more priceless things they will gain from this rather than just bumming and playing video games at home.

So I really would like to take the opportunity to thank Kim, Shanthini and RedRibbon Days for this wonderful experience! I will never forget this. :)

In my next post, I'm gonna post more pictures and yes, videos too of the performance. So please be kind and not laugh pretty please?

Well, till my next post then! Cheers Gleeks! :)