Today i'm a happy man. Firstly, there's no better way to start a morning than to have torrential rain. It's almost therapeutic to hear the rain and feel the wind engulf the whole room and it just pins you to your bed and leaves you sleeping on. Secondly, before me we have Mr Carrot Cake and Mr Roti Prata who are gonna be special guests taking a tour of My Stomach. We welcome them with open arms (or mouths).

OK, moving on. Last night was dance night - amarante ( i have no idea wad it means) and it was pretty damned good. Like someone mentioned before, anyone and everyone can probably make sense of dance because its so visual and it speaks different things to different people.

The first item was "We're in this together" and it was basically a very cheerleader-ish, feel good item. Was quite a good explosive starter but the girls' skirts were kinda weird.

The next item was put up by chinese dance, an item called 灵雨. And honestly, this is the item that i did not like the most cause i really didnt get what they were trying to convey and it didnt help that their accompanying music was really weird with some women shouting what sounds suspiciously like something in dialect. And the costumes was really too blue.

The "sexy", "provocative" hip hop dance item next was quite ok, nothing very memorable. Except that it really resembled some fashion show and honestly, i did not find them anywhere near "sexy" or "provocative".

The next one was an alumni's item that involved graceful dancing and lots of balloons. Although a little boring but i kinda liked this item for its gracefulness and the use of the balloons. And their costume was good too.

The next is one of the highlights of the night - Latin dance. I've always felt that latin is one dance that requires tons of skill and the rj dancers proved their worth. Besides being very sexy, their swift and sharp movements sure made for an item that got my attention all the way.

Then was some dance involving swings. It was kinda classical and the purplish costume was quite cool, looked like it came out of some jungle story. And i liked the music, which at the start sounded african like but i supposed it must have been french or something. I like the strong chorus kinda singing.

Then was a very traditional chinese dance which was quite plain normal.

Next was jiahui's item - grandmother's tale. It drew many laughters but i think it was a very creative aspect of dance and the use of clogs in tap dancing was very cool idea. The short malay song also set the whole tone quite well and the costumes were very suited to their act.

Next was a retro item featuring umbrellas which i felt was very messy and just plain lacking. Then was some mama-mia like item which was quite funky.

Then it was "mo li hua" by chinese dance. quite an aight item and i think the use of green light and the smoky effect, kinda recreated the early morning setting. was very cool.

After that was jazz, not much comments, just that it was quite different from the rest.

Then it was the ballet dance and once again i liked this piece for the music. It was really nice the music and i think the music for all dances is very important. Although some felt this piece was boring, i think its quite ok.

Then its my personal favourite - the chinese contemporary dance. It was quite a successful fusion of east and west and the end product is a very modern dance, not one that you'll usually associate with chinese dance but yet it retained its oriental nature. The use of the fans was also very awe inducing and quite scary at times, they were almost lethal.

Then it was the last item, the idea being its a dance competition between two camps. Had a lot of breaking and was quite well coordinated. Its amazing how it managed to seem freestyle, yet every move is chereographed.

I think overall dance night was a very amazing project if you come to think of it. Each dancer probably has to remember steps for 2 items and not just that the coordination is really good. Although at times, some of them were out of sync, but they are afterall human and i think what little they lacked there, they sure made it up with variety.

The largest winner of all, in my opinion, was chinese dance as it certainly managed to change people's association of chinese dance with all things boring and stone. The "geisha" like dance was really very well executed and will definitely be remembered. I think it was a very wise move to join raffles dance in putting up a concert coz they kinda complemented each other.

Overall, although the seats were cramped and a little far away, the whole sequence of events was really well and i am pretty much convinced that next year's dance night will be worth going.