CSTD Sub-elementary Exams!!

I AM BACK! but with a not so interesting entry!

I finally completed my Ballet Sub-ele Exams on the fateful 28/11/2007!! Cheer for me lah, asshole. I really want to remember the whole process leading up to the exams!

Preparing for the Exams!:

With experience from my earlier exam for Grade 6 in March 2007, i knew that I shouldn't continue to train the few days before the actual Sub-ele exam because my legs, from the toes to the arch to the ankle to the whatever muscles to the thighs, will be so exhausted! But the stupid thing is that my A level totally clashed with the preparation weeks leading to the Exam, so I have no choice but to continue to train up. I think the worst day of preparation was the day when I had Biology Paper 3 in the morning and the Exam rehearsal in the afternoon with an examiner. I was totally tired like the Tired God, whoever knows what it is. But at least from that rehearsal, we managed to see other people's standard and the difference in the syllabus being taught.

I think the only difference this year is that I didn't watch the professionals dance on Youtube to boost my morale. Because I don't have the time! WHY? The equally dumb Graduation Night is on 27/11/2007. Thats right! The day before the Exam! Who wants to go home early to prepare for an exam when almost everyone else is prepared to lose 3 years of life to thon the night. AND ME! TEO WEI HONG! Need to travel home myself to sleep for the Exam. So I better do well for the Exam to compensate for the joy lost.

Moreover, the time before the Graduation Night and during the Graduation Night itself was not really enjoyable. Because I am already starting to receive the news of the 'battlegrounds' at PA Kallang! My seniors and a junior had already completed their Exam that day and had informed me of things to be careful of and possible changes. YES. During an Exam, anything can happen. And the news I receive are all not very good! Such as people got scolded by the Examiner Mrs Betty Tilley, my seniors forgetting their stuff for Unseen work etcetc. These makes worrywarts like me super nervous!

The Day of Exam!:

Woke up and felt that my legs are not as tired as the day before, which is a good sign. Rushed to pack my stuff such as towels, attire, gel, shoes, socks, sexy undergarment LOL, rosin. To sum up, is all the barang barang. Reached PA Kallang at 8.15am and started to warmup and prepare. My male senior was already there! And he was still trying to remember the syllabus. For your information, we are the only 2 males taking the Sub-ele Exam in the whole of Singapore. There was another 2 females from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts taking part in the Exam with us and they are really brave because they have not listened to the music to train before! Then, Mrs Barbara, the CSTD Singapore and Malaysian Organiser, came in to give us our numbers and brought us to the studio. It's EXAM TIME! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!

Guess who was the first person I saw when I went into the studio? The good 'ol Mrs Betty Tilley of course, the Asian Region Director and Examiner aka my 红发美少女!

Mrs Tilley is on the extreme right! (Adapted from CSTD Website)

She began to mark the attendance and we proceeded to the barre (pronounced as bar). Barre work was smooth as in at least about the same as during our dance practices but I was the last person in the row! So went we turn to work on the left side, I feel so helpless because, I will have nobody to help me if I do something wrong! i think the Most happening thing during barre was when everyone else got the timing for the Battement Frappe timing wrong. 红发美少女 called out my name to tell me that only I did it with the timing lah! But her accent is strong until I heard she say I was wrong.

Then it was Centrework. Port de Bras first. Kept telling myself to smile and smile and smile WITHOUT A PLASTIC FACE of course! Problems came when we reached Temps Lies exercise because she didnt give us what she wanted for our arms as it is to be set by the examiner! Stunned a bit but still had to carry on as during the rehearsal. Then now is the Adage. Couldn't balance very well for my arabesque and attitude exercise though, really a pity because its not difficult! Adage 1 and 2 itself was ok I think, because this section was when Mrs Tilley smiled back to me most. I AM SEDUCED LAH! LOL! Then is the first Unseen work for the exam, Unseen Adage exercise. The work was not extremely difficult though.

Next was the turns! First to go was the Pirouette en dehors. We got 2 sets sadly. First was from 5th and 2nd position and the 2nd set is in 4th position. Then is the Pirouette en dedans. Tried to turn by brushing the feet through first into the a la seconde position but I really couldn't balance well, so I tried to turn by brushing feet as close as possible to the 1st position. She didn't comment on anything surprisingly. The best surprise came when we were told that males do not need to do the Emboite and Pose Releves by half turns! Major plus point for me! Though the free work on Petite Jetes was a bit unexpected and I think I didn't catch the timing well!

Hearing the beginning of the Allegros was a bigbig comfort to me because this means that the Exam is ending! Didn't get the footing for Petite Allegro wrong but come to think of it, I wonder if I had pointed my foot hard enough. ZZZ. 1st Allegro was ok but problems came when it was the 2nd Allegro. Used up quite some energy to do the sissonne changes well then in the end Mrs Tilley told us to redo because my the other male senior didn't change his leg for the sissonne changes to the left side! So we got to do again! 3rd Allegro was funny because the 2 girls didn't listen to the music before and they learnt the work wrong, so Mrs Tilley asked the pianist to slow down. Then when it's our turn, he also thought that we will do wrong and the music was darn slow! Then Mrs Tilley had to ask him to hurry up and we suddenly change speed like a toy robot. LOL! I believe the Unseen Allegro Exercise was torturous for the 2 girls because they can't understand what Mrs Tilley was asking them to do. So they almost did everything they knew to try their luck. Oh man, I was darn worried for them at that time.

Now its the short but tiring Petite Batterie Exercises! I think Mrs Tilley know I am a bit tired already, so she didn't ask me to redo the exercise with my male senior when he did it wrong. The Unseen work was an Unseen Batterie exercise weirdly. And I was asked to demostrate a Full Contretemps because the rest didn't know what Mrs Tilley was refering to.

Now is the Classical Dances! The girls, without listening to the music before, did their dance but with alot of wrong timings. One of the girl even forgot her dance steps because she just learnt it the day before. Worrying eh? Anyway, while waiting for the girls to finish their dances, I managed to take a quick glance at the A5 piece of paper which Mrs Tilley writes her comments on. MINE WAS ALREADY FULL OF BLUE INK!!! Really wonder if I should be worried or happy. My Classical Dance was ok only. Perhaps its the fatigue or nervousness, I couldn't jump as high as how I do during the practices and thats a pity! Waited for the girls to finish their Pointe Exercise and we did our reverences to the pianist Martin and Mrs Tilley. I think the funniest thing that happened for this section was when the audio system sot diao for a second and Mrs Tillet went off laughing with her deep and Santa-alike laughter! It is really very cute!

AND YES, THE EXAM WAS OVER JUST LIKE THAT!

AFTER THE EXAM!:

Went back to the waiting room to get our stuff and started exchanging our feelings. I was reading a piece of paper. THEN I REALISED IT HAD THE GRADING FOR THE PREVIOUS FEW CANDIDATES! Didn't manage to see my friends' results in the end because Mrs Barbara came in in nick of time to prevent me from sinning!

We were so busy trying to reply SMSes to well-wishers, my teacher, seniors etcetc so I am really sorry if I didn't reply to your SMS!

***

I really wonder when I will get back my results for the Ballet because it will be the last before I am being enlisted into army. Of course, to me, there is a certain stress factor because I did reasonably well for my Grade 6 Exam and I want to do better or if not, equally well! And I have a junior in Nan Hua who is doing the same grade as me! HAHA! Plus I don't want to let my dance teacher be disappointed.

Now I can only wait for the certificates to arrive! WISH ME LUCK!