Breakout Year

"Mommy, I want to win an Overall." - These words were spoken by M2 about 7 or 8 years ago.  YC replied, "Just work hard, practise hard, and you'll have a chance one day.  Different judges look for different things.  Some like your technique, some look for a certain style, some look for stage presence ... you never know.  If you don't win, it doesn't mean you're a bad dancer.  Different dancers develop at different times.  If you don't win this year, maybe you'll win next year.  You never know when you will have your breakout year."  Then she named several dancers at our studio who didn't become really good until they were older.

Later YC said to me, "I know M2 will have a breakout year one of these days.  She tries so hard.  She deserves it.  And she'll be so happy when it happens."

Well, I guess I should first explain what an "Overall" is, in case some of you are thinking it's an article of clothing and I forgot to put an "s" at the end.

In dance competitions, the dancers compete in a category such as "age 12 ballet" or "age 13 hip-hop".  Then the scores are compared in (usually) 4 categories: Mini (Under 8), Junior (8-10), Teen (12-14), Senior (15-17).  They will give an "Overall" award to the top 5 in each category - so for example you can win 1st Overall in the "Teen" category.  To do so, the "age 13 hip-hop" dancer needs to win his/her own category and also beat all other 12, 13, and 14 year-olds in all the other dance styles: Jazz, Acro, Tap, Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, etc.  It's not easy.  There could be over 50 dancers in one Overall category.  But then the competition might award top 10 - depends how big the competition is.  Some competitions only have two divisions for Overalls - "13 and over" and "12 and under".

Up until age 15, M2 may have won only three or four Overalls while competing in 4-6 competitions a year.  Most of them were at the back end - she may have been #5 when they awarded top 5 or #10 when they awarded top 10.  M2's dance style that she specializes in is Acro.  There's a popular view (urban myth/excuse/fact?) that it's harder to win an Overall with an Acro, Ballet, or Tap dance as judges mark those styles harder.  There's another belief that judges tend to mark harder on the first day of the competition (Thursday) and then easier at the end (Saturday/Sunday).  Well, the luck of the draw had M2 dancing on the first day for most competitions.  I don't know if these are the reasons that she didn't win or just excuses, but I (biased father) felt that she did dance better than others who placed higher than her.  Sometimes other parents would mention that M2 should have scored higher as well.  All this really hurt me because I knew how much M2 wanted it and I really felt she was robbed sometimes.

Well, this year, age 16, M2 had her breakout year!  (I'm sure you guessed this was coming or else this would have been a pretty pointless blog.)  Since COVID hit, she began training her acro technique at a second dance studio and it greatly improved her skills.  (The way she found this studio will be the subject of future blog.)  She participated in 5 competitions and won first overall in 3 of them and second overall in the other two.  Not only that, she was a fan favourite as the audience cheered loudly for her and could not stop talking about how awestruck they were about some of her moves.  Dancers from other studios complimented her and judges gave her special mentions.  I was thinking, "Finally, some judges that can appreciate real talent!"

Now, M2 is not the most talented all-around dancer at the competitions.  She's not even that in her studio or her own age group.  She would likely not place if she did a solo in another dance style.  But this year, for her Acro solo she delivered a breakout performance.  And YC called it.  YC, I know you enjoyed watching M2's performances this year.  M2, Mommy and Daddy are really proud of you!

Big Oh

Basket B

Today is YC’s and my 24^th wedding anniversary.  I’m going to share a memory about one of our more common dates.

We liked to frequent a restaurant called, “Dickens” at Midland and Finch.  It was a Hong Kong style café and it was quite the happening place in the 90s.  The crowd was mainly university students or young adults in their mid to late 20s.  We’d often bump into other friends there, also going on dates.  Then one of YC’s high school friends got a job as a waiter there and so he would get us extra food once in a while.

I don’t think we had dinner there a lot.  We generally went there after dinner and a movie.  So we’d go there around 10 PM and there were still a lot of people there.  This was the “siu yeah” (midnight snack) meal that was common for the dating scene.  Sometimes we would go there for a snack before the midnight show at Market Village when they still had a movie theatre there (remember that?).

So what kind of snacks did we have?  Well, recall my blog about our Montreal Trip this past Christmas.  In there I mentioned something called, “Basket B” and that it would be the subject of a future blog.  Well, this is the blog.  YC and I would order Basket B – that’s how it was labelled on the menu.  They had foods that were served in baskets and this one had fries, onion rings, chicken wings, fried shrimp, and I think calamari.  Basically, it was just a bunch of fried stuff.  I don’t think I would be able to handle all that fried food today but back then it was the perfect snack!  YC didn’t like fried food as much as I did so she only had a few nibbles.  But she liked to watch me enjoy the food and rave about it.  She would order a bubble tea (or “pearl milk tea” as it was called back then).  She maintains that she was enjoying bubble tea before it became a “thing”.  Yes, there were no bubble tea stores in the 90s.  It was just another item on the menu.

After we got married and moved downtown, we went to Dickens a lot less.  Then after having a baby, we didn't go at all.  And one day when we did bring our daughters there to introduce them to Basket B, it was gone!  I don’t know when that Dickens store closed down but I think there is one in Markham somewhere.  Maybe I will bring my daughters one day and enjoy a Basket B with them.  YC, my love, I know you will be watching us and enjoying a bubble tea.  Happy Anniversary.

Big Oh