Audrey's Door Signs

Ever since Audrey got a room of her own when we moved to our Columbus Square home two years ago, she's created numerous signs that covered her entire bedroom door, whose messages protested  forced alterations of the room's natural state and proclaimed it off-limits to visitors.  Some examples:

BLESS THIS MESS!

It's Not Messy; It's AweSome!

Clutter brings immeasurable
world peace.

Gandhi

MESS IS BEST!

Jesus

My favorite used to be her drawing of a charging guard beast with blood foaming out of its mouth above the following caption: 

Ki's Room

NO TRESPASSING

ATTACK UNICORN!

But I think this new sign takes the cake:

EVERY TIME YOU ENTER WITHOUT KNOCKING,

AN UNDERPRIVILEGED AFRICAN KITTEN IS BORN WITH ITS EYES TOO FAR APART.

“Please don’t make me ugly!”

You Can Dance (or not!), Part III

As it turned out, neither of my girls turned in the kind of performance we'd hoped for at the Oct. 16 You Can Dance gala.

Audrey was disappointed and embarrassed about the obvious flubs in her routine, but recovered in time to enjoy the rest of the program.  Lauren's performance was better than her sister's, but still not consistent with practice.  It was a relief that the girls went early in the line-up (Lauren was fourth and Audrey sixth), as my mom couldn't stay the entire length of the show due to poor health, but also a bummer that both my sisters missed the girls' performances entirely because they got stuck in the  hotel's full parking lot.

Due to unforeseen complications, we were late, and in our haste arrived at the wrong venue to boot.  Upon realizing our error, I told my sisters to try and get the car to valet parking as quickly as possible and split from them to lead my girls to right hotel on foot.  After running the entire length of the parking lot to the Marriott Suites on high heels, Audrey and Lauren were out of breath and stressed to the max.  Their instructor, Paul Bond, was waiting anxiously outside the hotel lobby to usher them into the ballroom.  They barely had time to catch their breath before getting in line to perform.

The sponsor dance segment consisted of 6 routines of about 2 ½ minutes each, whose music clips were pre-arranged and recorded in a medley, so our late arrival had actually held up the program because the order of the performers' appearances could not be interchanged and the Dancesation team wouldn't be able to begin the show until Audrey and Lauren had turned up.  We were terribly sorry we'd started everyone out on the wrong foot, and it wasn't a good night for Audrey at all!

On the positive side, we loved the way Audrey looked on the dance floor thanks to the magic of La Belle!  The Golden LaBelle team, which included shop owners Johnny Phong and Mina Uyen, the official hair & makeup artist of You Can Dance reality show, had graciously taken her in on a last-minute request from my sister Quyen, even though they were booked solid the entire day doing the contestants' makeup.

While waiting for her sister to come home from the salon, Lauren enjoyed going through her own beauty routine in the privacy of her room.  When I last checked up on her, she'd spent a good twenty minutes painting meticulous card motifs on her nails in keeping with her Poker Face dance theme.  As her nails were drying, she drew heart-shaped designs on her lips in red and black.  I wasn't crazy about the funky look, but not going to deny Lauren her creative license either as long as the result wasn't wildly inappropriate.  At her age, you can experiment and get away with a lot.

In the past, Lauren and Audrey have always worn off-the-rack dresses to all their dance graduations and competitions.  I thought it was about time Audrey got a proper dance costume of her own.  She'd ordered hers on eBay (Audrey was still an eBay fiend despite that disastrous experience with her pageant dress) from a Vietnam-based dancewear shop.  I had some misgivings about ordering online with a foreign vendor when the event date was less than 2 weeks away, but there wasn't anything I could find elsewhere within our budget that Audrey liked.  Fortunately, the dress arrived on time and needed no alterations.  It was such a relief as we didn't have any back-up Latin dance dresses in our closet.  For Lauren, I'd made do by ordering a quick-ship Rocker Girl leotard with fishnet cut-out sides from http://www.starsdancewear.net/ to pair up with her choice of a $19.99 off-the-rack black & red tutu from Discount Dance Supply.  To complete the outfit, we added a pair of rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses and stretch satin fingerless gloves from Lauren's favorite shoestring accessory store at Paul's suggestion.

Lauren in her Rocker Girl getup

We were happy about our costume choices, but couldn't help feeling a little envious of the YCD contestants' professional dancewear, which must have cost a fortune and looked it!



Lauren cutting the rug with her instructor, Paul Bond, to Lady Gaga's Poker Face

  

Audrey and Paul dancing to Marc Anthony's Aguanile

We had a marvelous evening even though no one from our family ventured onto the dance floor during the social dance segments.  The most interesting part of the show, besides seeing the contestants battle it out for the People's Choice Award, was the presentation of the L'Or de Jean Martell auction for SAVICE (Save a Vietnamese Child with Education), with a dramatic James Bond skit starring Loan Nguyen, Hang-Ny Nguyen, and Alexander Andreev, a.k.a. Sasha.  Although not a wines & spirits connoisseur, I was briefly tempted to join the bidding for the limited-edition decanter of rare French cognac made from a blending of the clearest eau-de-vie, aged over 100 years in the House of Martell's cellars (one of 120 bottles available in the States that carried a price tag of $3,600 each), until I was brought back to sobriety remembering Audrey's steep college tuition has yet to be paid this month.  Martell, one of the reality show's major sponsors, unexpectedly decided to up the excitement level by throwing in a private party package of catering and drinks for the auction winner.  Everyone at our table concurred that the private party itself was worth more than the bidding price at that point, but lacked the cash to make it ours.  In the end, the famed cognac bottle went to a generous and deserving supporter of YCD for just above $7,000.  The event's success allowed Dancesation to present a check in the amount of $15,500 to benefit SAVICE, which confirmed that the night's gala was truly a worthwhile endeavor to everyone who participated and a fun evening for all!

Hang-Ny in the L'Or de Jean Martell skit

================

For anyone interested in glamorous special-occasion makeup and hairstylings, here's the address for La Belle:  10568 Westminster Ave, Suite #E, Garden Grove, Ca 92843.  Check them out on Facebook under Golden LaBelle (Johnny Phong) and view their amazing Before & After photos!

You Can Dance (or not!), Part II

I'm not above bribing for good results!

Yesterday when my girls rehearsed for the last time at Avant Garde studio, I'd promised them $50 shopping money each if they executed flawless routines during their Saturday's performances.

Which begged the question, posed by Paul, the girls' instructor, "Wait a minute, how would you know whether they had a flawless routine or not?"  Well, I wasn't referring to a technically perfect routine per se, but one in which my untrained eyes can't spot an obvious blunder!  I'm a mom, not a judge, and I'm not going to be apologetic about it... I've always had lenient standards when it came to my kids.

Money isn't a big motivator for Audrey at this point in her life, but Lauren did seem to perk up considerably after entertaining her possible windfall.  Neither of the girls had the pressure of being a contestant on the show, so they haven't been exactly pumped up about the need to practice.  We've languished along all summer and if Paul didn't call to cancel one week, then Audrey would the next.  Only recently did the girls make an honest attempt to catch up with their missed lessons after skipping the entire month of August due to Paul's vacation.  The good thing is, both Audrey and Lauren are looking forward to easier schedules scholastically and otherwise after their appearance in the show's finale on October 16.

Lauren twirling around in the hotel lobby after Saturday's performance



In the previous installment of my blog, I've only covered half of the contestants in the You Can Dance semi-finals.  The second batch's performances can be viewed on the official YCD website, with a brief wrap-up below.

Episode 11, Part I, featuring:

– Special appearance by celebrity performer Phi Khanh, a Vietnamese singer who had the longest blurb of all the performers on the show's website. 

– Vuong Tran, a graceful grandma, dancing the Slow Waltz with her instructor CJ (Chongpisut Jetphukthai).  CJ seemed to be the favorite of the older female contestants (he'd also choreographed Linda Tong's routine and a few other sponsoring performers').  Although he'd initially complained about the language barrier (CJ  was a Thai native who didn't speak Vietnamese, and Mrs. Tran spoke little English) that hindered his teaching, the rapport between him and his students noticeably improved as the show progressed and he seemed genuinely moved while speaking about Linda Tong's overwhelming pressure of continuing in the semi-finals while coping with her husband's health crisis.

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-11-part-i/

Episode 11, Part II, featuring:

– Denise Vo, a legal processing specialist, working the Tango with her instructor Sasha (Alexander Andreev).  She was rather stiff.  Judge Bryan Nguyen, a lawyer by profession, didn't show his fellow law grad any mercy, concurring with Judge Thuy Van in his critique of the contestant's performance.  Among other faults that were pointed out, Thuy Van deemed the dance style indeterminate – it wasn't the Smooth Tango it aspired to be, but not quite an Argentine Tango either.

– Dr. Christopher Bui (Bui Xuan Duong) frolicking in a cheeky Cha Cha routine with his sexy instructor, Petra Chovancova.  Petra looked smoking hot and Dr. Bui appeared a bit flustered by the heat.  Nevertheless, he garnered the distinction of earning the first perfect 10 of the season (from Judge Tran Trung Thanh).  Added to two 8's from the other judges, Dr. Bui's score placed him in the running for a spot on the You Can Dance finals.

Orange County's favorite GI doc keeping the beat with his professional partner, Petra Chovancova

I was (pleasantly) surprised by the judges' frankness. I've always found Vietnamese judges to be way too soft and exceedingly politically correct. As a rule, we Vietnamese are notorious for being politically correct in public, but quite the opposite in private! For that reason, I didn't think a Vietnamese reality show could prove to be a viable concept, knowing our cultural penchant to keep proper appearances and avoid conflicts at all costs.

There was one YCD episode on which the contestants were divided into two opposing teams and the people comprising each team were forced to expose and eliminate "the weak link" in their group and cite the reasons behind their decisions.  That segment revealed a bit of the backstage politics and drama that made the show more interesting and unorthodox than I had expected.  It did not remotely approach a catfight level as ridiculous as what you would observe on Survivor or Bravo's Housewives series, but as far as Vietnamese standards go, proved to be a lot more intense than I would've anticipated.  One of the older contestants was mildly apologetic about her decision to cut one of her teammates, citing contest rules that specifically forbade the ouster of oneself to explain that her hand was forced, so to speak.  The funniest bit was contestant Vu Khanh's opinion of his elimination choice.  I could not have expected the teammate he described as "bossy and aggressive" to be 14 year-old Kevin Phan!

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-11-part-ii/

Episode 11, Part III, featuring:

– Guest performer Jessica Nguyen, a 17 year-old high school student who hopes to regularly compete in Pro-Am Dance Sport events in the near future, dancing the Tango with her instructor CJ.  Jessica has a super cute figure and a beautiful dance costume to match.  Loved her outfit!

Jessica Nguyen and her instructor, Yiri Kosydar, at the YCD finale



– Contestant Tony Ngo, burning the floor in an impassioned Paso Doble routine with his instructor, Melissa Cyr.  I was disappointed by his relatively low scores in the semi-finals competition, which I thought didn't reflect his true ability.  For whatever reasons, the judges tended to be tougher on the contestants who'd gone all out with more challenging performances, and noticeably softer on those who were less skillful.  My favorite judge was Thuy-Van, IMO the fairest and most consistent scorer on the panel, which comprised a good mix of personalities and styles.  Thuy-Van is a charmer who managed to be both diplomatic and instructive in her critiques.  Thanh Trung Tran, the renegade judge, gave the best laughs with his offbeat commentaries and quirky reviews of the contestants' performances.  However, his scoring was all over the place!  He seemed to enjoy being the wildcard factor on the judging panel.  Bryan Nguyen was the most benign and moderate judge among the three, always maintaining his supportive and encouraging tone while doling out constructive advice.

– Contestant Samantha Nguyen, gyrating seductively in a red-hot Samba number with her instructor, Yiri Kosydar.  By and large, I agreed with the judges' critiques of Samantha's performance.  Thuy-Van praised the pair's chemistry, but noted that Samantha needed to pay more attention to her footwork.  Thanh Tran concurred that Samantha's routine lacked bounce action, an important element for samba.  Bryan Nguyen's commentary was along the line of... Your total package looked flashy, but lacked substance!  Samantha, with her "Brazilian body befitting a Brazilian dance" (as described by the Dancesation emcee), was clearly the audience's favorite, and tied with Dr. Bui and Gillian (Hang-Ny) Nguyen for the People's Choice Award based on her Clap-o-meter register at the show's finale held at the Anaheim Marriott Suites.  Ultimately, Hang-Ny triumphed after several good-natured games of rock-paper-scissors to determine the popular vote winner.

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-11-part-iii/

Hang-Ny exulting after defeating Samantha in the final game of rock-paper-scissors

You Can Dance contestants congratulating Hang-Ny on her win

Episode 11, Part IV, featuring:

– Dancesation dancers Quoc Viet and Loan Nguyen performing a romantic Slow Waltz.  Loanne was also the show's organizer and my new acquaintance.  She made me feel totally inadequate!  We both have lots of children (hers are younger), but she managed to cut a beautiful figure on stage dancing whereas I can't even maintain a lame exercise schedule consisting of 30-minute daily walks around my neighborhood.

– Mai Tran, a manicurist (in my opinion the best overall dancer in the competition), smoldering in a sultry Rumba with her instructor, Erik Cyr.  Erik's been rooting for his student to win at the studio where I took my girls to practice, and I'd promised him I would vote for her, but ended up splitting my votes (a total of four was allowed per call-in phone number) between her and Dr. Chris Bui, with the majority vote going to Dr. Bui (can anyone do the math?).  After all, what are friends for?  Right, anh Duong??

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-11-part-iv/

Mai Tran and her instructor, Erik Cyr, at the YCD finale



  

You Can Dance (or not!)

I'm so looking forward to seeing the You Can Dance finale live tomorrow night!

It's been a long time since I got to enjoy watching my girls dance outside of practice.  I can't even remember the last time they competed in anything.  It was either at Emerald Ball or Embassy Ball... years ago!  Audrey never had a routine of her own.  Every time she's competed, it was always a flash of 30 seconds or so on the dance floor in some crowded ballroom with a huge group of other beginner-level competitors.  Lauren had exactly one routine that Justice (her former instructor) choreographed for her at the 2007 Promenade (their former studio) graduation, but in that skit she had to be a ghoul!  It was set to the Addams Family theme song, and Lauren appeared as the macabre family's daughter, Wednesday (who was said to have been named after the phrase "Wednesday's child is full of woe" from the nursery rhyme Monday's Child), in pigtails and Gothic makeup.

Lauren waiting to go on stage as Wednesday Addams

Besides my vested interest in seeing my girls perform in a bona fide show, I'm also excited to turn up at the YCD finale to cheer on my friend, Dr. Christopher Bui (Bui Xuan Duong), who was sport enough to don glitter dancewear in place of his usual white coat & scrubs to take on the formidable challenge of being a celebrity contestant on the reality show.

  

I've followed and enjoyed every single episode of the show on SBTN.  Paul, the girls' instructor, was curious, but could not understand Vietnamese, so in one of my emails I had to put it in capsule form for him:

"Paul, if you care to, you can view the following episodes to get a feel for the show.

It's pretty entertaining to me, because I could understand what everyone said in Vietnamese, but there was one judge who consistently spoke in English, so you could probably flesh out his comments and somewhat make sense of the on-stage action...

Episode 10, Part I, featuring:

- Dancesation group performance with a special appearance from judge Thuy Van, a professional singer/dancer.

- Best looking contestant (Hang Ny Nguyen) dancing the Paso Doble hoping for a reconciliation with her estranged father who might watch the show and recognize her.

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-10-part-i/



Hang Ny Nguyen and her instructor, Alexander Andreev (a.k.a. Sasha), at the YCD finale

Episode 10, Part II, featuring:

- Underdog contestant Rao Nguyen, a Feng shui expert/fortune teller who came all the way from France supposedly motivated by unorthodox pressure from his newly-met girlfriend: no sex until he takes home the title. What the heck!! Amazingly, he danced much, much better than I expected!

- Vickie To (assistant manager of Lee's Sandwiches, a well-known Vietnamese deli), a dance bug who's a regular at many Vietnamese nightclubs, dancing the samba. The judges' preliminary comments have focused on the "bad habits" she'd picked up from the dance floor that were hard to break.

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-10-part-ii/

Vickie To and her instructor, Erik Cyr, at the YCD finale

Episode 10, Part III, featuring:

- Guest performer Kevin Phan – 14 year-old student doing the Jive.  Cute, but generic.

- Linda Tong, an elementary school teacher from Texas, who almost canceled her stint in the show to cope with her husband's health crisis (he recently underwent a kidney transplant). After a return to Texas to take care of her family, she's flown back to California to compete in the semi-finals with her husband's encouragement and blessing. She's understandably all stressed out and looks it!

- Vu Khanh Nguyen, a Vietnamese regular Joe who admitted to having a sizable complex about his height and appeal (or lack of such) to the opposite sex, trying to lose his inhibitions through dancing.  I like his modest demeanor and self-deprecating humor.  I like his wife even better.  In the short clip showing her by his side at home, she appeared easygoing, self-effacing and supportive.  They're a sweet couple!

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-10-part-iii/

Vu Khanh Nguyen and his instructor, Petra Chovancova, at the YCD finale

Episode 10, Part IV, featuring:

- Wendy Ho, a self-described former wallflower hoping to inspire her younger sister by her hard-won transformation from shy girl to confident/sexy vixen who can dance to follow her own passions!

http://www.youcandance.tv/you-can-dance/semi-finals-episode-10-part-iv/

Wendy Ho and her instructor, Yiri Kosydar, at the YCD finale

After watching the contestants tell their personal stories and relate their journeys in dance, it's difficult not to like them more than a little bit... yes, even the Feng shui specialist who warbled that famous Vietnamese song, Trăng Sáng Vườn Chè, which included the infamous phrase:  "Anh chưa thi đỗ thì chưa... động phòng!", relating to the previously-mentioned withholding of sex."

Audrey was originally invited to appear in You Can Dance, but declined because she was quite sure she wouldn't cope well with the pressure and scrutiny that could likely accompany being a full-on participant of the reality show.  In retrospect, as her college schedule had been particularly challenging last quarter, Audrey would not have fared well at all juggling her activities and commitments, and ultimately, I'm glad she didn't sign on to be a contestant.

But it would be fun watching her dance the salsa to Marc Anthony's "Aguanile" in the sponsoring performers segment tomorrow night.

Lauren will be fourth in the program with a Cha Cha routine set to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face!"

By the way, my blog title, You Can Dance (or not!), wasn't referring to any contestants on the reality show... only myself.

I remember watching (and cringing all the while) that particular Dancing with the Stars episode where Kate Gosselin of "Kate Plus 8" fame strutted across the dance floor with her hapless partner, Tony Dolovani, to Lady Gaga's infectious pop tune, Paparazzi.  Her awkward performance moved one acerbic judge to make a (deservedly) unkind comment, something to the effect of... It looked like Tony was pushing a shopping cart across the floor!

I'd love to believe otherwise, but to be perfectly honest, had I been both bold and stupid enough to appear on YCD (and had the show's organizers actually put me there for some inexplicable reasons), I would've put forth a performance just as cluelessly strange and artless as Gosselin's.

I'm sure professional dance instructors can work wonders with people who have a modicum of talent and coordination, but also certain there are klutzes that defy even the best training... myself included somewhere at the top of the list.

Fortunately, even with sporadic encouragement from Paul, I know enough to keep myself off the dance floor!