Big Bash with Cato Larsen – August 15 2009

Thank you Cato for making it to our event.  We have been waiting for this day since February 2009.  I remembered when we started to share the event details with friends; and everyone was saying hellooooo it’s in August!!!  Well, how time flies.   Today, we have friends from the southern most tip and the northern states of Malaysia and also from across the ocean i.e. Sabah and Sarawak and from Singapore and Australia.

We hope the trip is memorable and Cato will bring sweet memories back to his homeland, Norway.

Cato arrived into Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday, 12 August.  Yen Ling, Philip and I were at the airport and we waited for an hour and got rather worried when there was no sign of Cato.  It turned out that there was a long queue at the Immigration and finally we noticed a gentleman in white walking through the arrival door and there he was.

In the evening to keep him awake to overcome the jetlag, we had a nice warm welcoming Chinese dinner at 1 World Hotel with some line dancing friends from local and Australia.  It was a relaxing evening.

Friday was set up at the TTDI Community Hall, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.  Our sponsors did a great job with the state-of-the-art sound system and lightings and the backdrop center piece.  We are honoured and never before we had such elaborate decorations.  It turned the hall into a magical land.  Thank you Avitcom Sdn Bhd and Crystal Edge Sdn Bhd.

Just around 8.00pm, we opened the doors for the pre-event social.  It was a great opportunity for friends to mingle and jam.

On Saturday, 15 August, the long awaited Big Bash began with a warming up exercise with Yen Ling leading to the tune of KungFu Fighting, followed by workshops:

Philip Sobrielo Gene shared Black or White, a tribute to Michael Jackson.

At Cato’s workshop, he shared with us 5 dances namely, his latest, Roll With The Wind, Fairytale, I Won’t Cry, Can’t Get Enough, Sealed With A Kiss

A special friend told me that she loved every dance and certainly a worthwhile workshop.

As the clock ticks, we moved very quickly into the evening affair; we chose Mad Hatters for the evening theme.  It was fantastic to see our guests come in all sorts of head gear with matching costumes.  We had a little competition for the best dressed and dance attitude in Electric Slide to “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson.

For the big welcome dance, we danced to a special choreography for the event, Get On Your Feet, (music by Gloria Estefan).

Another highlight of the magical evening was the Showcase Competition.  A total of 5 teams competed.  The judges, Cato, Vincent Chia and Robin Sin did not have difficulty to select the Champion - Kaleidoscope of Evil (a team of 11 very energetic dancers).  They received a champion trophy from Royal Selangor International and prize money of RM1,000.00.

Fun Stompers has always been inspired to reach out to the community.  Since our inception we have been working with several NGO’s and individuals.  This time it is our pleasure to work with the Soroptimist Club, Bangsar and the project they have selected “Halt The Violence” against children and the Smiling Maitriya Buddha Society in India which provides shelter for the hardcore poor children.  Each NGOs have their own needs and we trust their objectives and we are pleased to be able to partner them in good faith.

We had a fabulous turnout for the entire weekend with great dancing.  The event was very well received.  Thank you for joining us and in making this event a success.

Special thanks go to Aspirasi Awansari (M) Sdn Bhd, Jubilants and to all our friends who have contributed towards the success of this event

Last but not the least; the event coincided with Fun Stompers’ 7^th Anniversary.  We are very excited as we stand here before you 7 years since our inception.  Thus making us friends with all of you for the last 7 years.  Isn’t that wonderful.

Margaret Lee

President

www.funstompers.com

http://picasaweb.google.com/funstompers

BIG BASH WITH CATO LARSEN

15^th August 2009

TTDI Community Centre, Kuala Lumpur

 

 

From the Cat City of Kuching on the island of Borneo , fifteen line dancers flew to Kuala Lumpur last weekend for a Big Bash with Cato Larsen. Basically it was a fun and relaxing weekend away from home where we just danced, danced and danced some more!

A free jamming session was put in on Friday night for participants to get down on the dance floor to strut their stuff, but except for three more hard-working ones, the Kuching group ended up in Mid-Valley Mega Mall happily shopping and eating the day (and evening) away. J

Saturday morning saw some of us piling into the Toyota Innova to make our way to TTDI Community Centre. We managed to get to the venue after getting lost in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. Driver Ling who is from Kuala Lumpur has lived in Kuching for the last eight years, and supposed-navigator (me!) was hopelessly lost as Ling used a different highway from Jalan Ipoh where the group was staying!

The workshop started at around 10.30am with a “warm-up” dance to Kungfu Fighting led by Yen Ling. Singaporean Sobrielo Philip Gene then did a teach on BLACK OR WHITE to (of course) THE song by the legendary Michael Jackson. The MJ moves in the dance were real cool and we had a chance to learn the moonwalk, the side glide, and the (ahem!) pelvic thrusts! Can’t wait to have a closer look at the dance! It’s a definite “must learn”!

Cato Larsen turned up and after some problems with the computer and songs, managed to get the “fresh from the oven” dance ROLL WITH THE WIND taught. The novelty dance written to a song of the same title by 2009 Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest winner, Alexander Rybak, has two tags and two restarts but they are quite easily heard in the music. I personally like the Chugg (think MJ’s Thriller’s zombies!!). J

Next up was I WON’T CRY, an easy Intermediate line dance with no tags and no restarts… yeahhhhh! As usual, Cato put in a “surprise” in the dance in the form of a very easy roll to the right (in the second 8’s), which caught a lot of us going in the wrong direction. Go check out this dance and you’ll see what I mean.

After a short lunch break, we dove into learning CAN’T GET ENOUGH, and FAIRYTALE (to the fantastic winning song of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest by Alexander Rybak which has folk elements in it). Fairytale has three DIFFERENT tags – if THAT will not keep you on your toes, I don’t know what will! J

Cato threw in SEALED WITH A KISS, which was requested by Margaret - the organizer - but by that time my brain was not computing anymore, so I left the dance floor to rest my poor feet. A quick walk-through of GET ON YOUR FEET, a dance by the Fun-Stompers, brought the day’s workshops to a close.

We came back for the MAD HATTERS party to a transformed hall for an evening of great fun, performances, showcase competition which was won by a group from Penang (choreographer – Celeste Chee who just gets better and better!!!!) and of course, food and dancing.

For us Kuching dancers, it was an eye-opener to those who were first-timers at such events. Jennifer, who picked up line dance only last year, has said that she is not going to remain where she is any more but is moving on to try more difficult stuff. Stephanie and Ling (and myself) love the songs that Cato chose for his dances. I understand that the group who went back to Kuching on Sunday were dancing away at the LCCT – trying to recall dances … what more can I say?????

The Fun Stompers of Kuala Lumpur did themselves proud with the organizing of the Big Bash with Cato Larsen. They’ve raised the bar of line dance events in Malaysia and will be a hard act to follow, but I’m definitely looking forward to more. So when is the next event, Margaret? Congratulations on an event well-organized!

Report by:

Yeo Yu Puay