Wednesday, August 10, 2011

MDSB Malaysian National Dancesport Championships 2011




It has been a very long time since the MDSB (Malaysian Dance Sport Berhad) organized an event like this and it was good to see them starting up again. The MDSB is now being led by Mr George Lim who was appointed the President and many plans have been put forward and are now slowly being put into action. This year's National were held at the beautiful Thean Hou Temple hall which was a little small but everyone coped well.

Earlier this year, the MDSB did run a small medallist competition at the RLC which got the ball rolling. This time round they decided to take it higher and run a half day championship with events ranging from Juvenille Solo all the way up to the Malaysian Amateur Closed. They wisely kept it small by limitting the championship to a national, closed event to ease the working committee back into the stresses of dealing with championships and to encourage the new dancers to participate. This year, the organizing committee was made up of :

Mr George Lim - MDSB President
Mrs Janet Lim - MDSB Sport Director & Treasurer
Mr Chong Kim Yee - Organizing Chairman
Mr Eric Tan Sze Meng
Ms Jovy Wong
Ms Schlaine Wong
Mr Apache Yong
Mr Y S Lee

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at how almost every member of the organizing committee were on hand to actualy work and do their bit to keep things on the ball. Mr Chong was running around, trying his best to make sure the programme was running as close to schedule as possible while greeting all the supporters and guests. Eric was keeping track of the medals and ensuring the judges were all comfortable. Jovy was (as she has been many times in the past) our scriptwriter for all the certificates. Schlaine managed the preparation of the programme and paperwork and YS was on hand to deal with everything else and the music.

We had a panel of suitably qualified judges with two foreign judges on board. I was delighted to find that our chief adjudicator was a lovely British rose. I don't believe we have ever had a female chief adjudicator in the entire 25 years that I have been involved in Dancesport in Asia !! She was firm, clear and concise and the judges took their cue from her and everyone was very attentive during the events with no 'missing' judges to report.

Panel of Adjudicators :

Ms Yvonne Taylor-Hill - Chief Adjudicator (United Kingdom)
Mr Chong Kim Yee
Ms Irene Au
Ms Amy Lee
Ms Tricia Cheong
Ms Joanne Leong
Ms Chin Gim Choo
Ms Judy Ong
Ms May Chean
Ms Yukiko Hori
Mr Michael Yong
Ms Reena Leong
Ms Therese Tan
Mr Ooi Hock Seng
Mr Michael Yeap
Mr Eric Tan Sze Meng
Mr Siow Boon Wah
Ms Grace Chan
Mr Loke Tze Hao
Ms Victoria Cheng (China)
Ms Wong Chooi Yee

Scrutineering Team : Nixon Ong

For the first time in a long time too, there were no issues with breaking of the rules & stipulated syllabus in the beginners events !!! This made it very pleasant for the me as I was not required to call anybody up on it and everything ran smoothly. There were many new faces on the floor this time as the members of this association had not brought their students out 'into the open' before. It was good to see so many juvenille and junior dancers making their debut. 

We were not disappointed with our top Novice, Pre Amateur, Rising Star & Amateur couples. All of them giving us polished performances which showed good floor skills, technique & choreography. The audience was thrilled at the individual introduction of each of our Amateur couples as they came out to performe briefly before their event started.

List of Champions :

Std. Solo Under 8 - #214  Miyaki Teng

Std. Solo Under 12 - #229  Owen Lee Zheng Wen

Std. Solo Open - #201  Susan Lee

Std. Beg. Adult - #6 Louis Looi & Belle Tan

Std. Beg. Senior Over 45 - #48  Ben Han & Shirly Lian

Latin Beg. Junior Under 16 - #53  Kelvin Low & Melanie Khoo

Latin Beg. Adult - #26  Bryan Fong & Yong Mei Fong

Latin Ladies - #5  Adele Lim & Evelyn Lim

Latin Novice 1 - #41  Tye Jian Jin & Cindy Law

Latin Novice 2 - #41  Tye Jian Jin & Cindy Law

Latin Solo Under 8 - #214  Miyaki Teng

Latin Solo Under 12 - #227 Wong Jia Wei

Latin Solo Open - #233  Amelia Henderson

Latin Beg. Juvenile Under 8 - #61  Nicholas Wong & Lee Shin Yee

Latin Beg. Juvenile Under 12 - #53  Kelvin Low & Melanie Khoo

Latin Beg. Ladies - #32  Lee Pei Ni & Lee Jia Huey

Std. Novice 1 - #45  Tham Sai Chong & Goh Li Kee

Std. Beg Juvenile Under 8 - #52  Ng Zhen Ni & Miyumi Teng

Std. Beg. Juvenile Under 12 - #50  Owen Lee & Miyaki Teng

Std. Novice 2 - #58  Christopher Low & Catrina Low

Std. Pre Amateur - #7  Harry Oon & Dionne Leong

Std. Senior Over 45 - #12  Colin Lim & Tan Suan Chu

Std. Malaysian Amateur Closed - #66  Johnston Lim & Nicole Tan

Latin Juvenile Under 12 - #23  Owen Lee & Chloe Lam

Latin Junior Under 16 - #7  Harry Oon & Dionne Leong

Latin Amateur Rising Star - #36  Shaun Low & Pearly Low

Latin Pre Amateur - #41  Tye Jian Jin & Cindy Law

Latin Malaysian Amateur Closed - #33  Alfred Choo & Cecilia Yong

****************************************************************************

Congratulations to all the champions and great job to ALL the competitors. Everyone did their very best and everyone tried. How much more could one ask for? If you want to aim for a higher position in the next championship, you just have to set your goals higher and you'll soon achieve it.


The champions highlighted in bold in the Malaysian Amateur events are also the first winners of the challenge throphy for each of their genres. The throphy for the standard division is sponsored by Mr George Lim and the one for the latin division is sponsored by Mrs Janet Lim. Couples are only allowed to retain the throphy if they managed to win in 3 consecutive challenge throphy events. So guys, you only need to win 2 more times to take it home ;D

There was no mention of the next event under the MDSB but we are all hoping for another to follow next year or soner. It has been a long time since a National level championship has been held in KL and honestly its was about time. With all our big open international championships going on, the new dancer is often too afraid to join as they feel terribly intimidated by all the big names. Well done MDSB !! Bring on the next event.

No comments: