Pro Dancers Reveal What It Takes to WIN an EPIC Dance Competition

Today we have a special episode. We're gonna give you an exclusive look into classical Chinese dance Also, make sure to stay until the end where I interview a special guest Hey, welcome back with the three musketeers And let's introduce ourselves a little bit for people who haven't seen our video before so I'm William Lee I'm Sam Poo and I'm Jisung Kim. I just did a prosthetic surgery and I think I look better than before Yeah, so in all seriousness Jisung couldn't make it today So we had Kenji come back and take his place just for today's video. Today. We're at the NTD TV international classical Chinese dance competition It's the finals and we've actually all competed before so we're gonna talk about our past experiences in competing and Introduce a little bit about classical Chinese dance to you and it's gonna be just a conversation with the audience and with each other so the first thing that we want to talk about is How many times have you competed before I've competed five times Competed four times. I can be the four times Okay, so you guys are all like seasoned veterans in this competition. I would say that. Yes. Hey, do you win anything by the way? Yes, I got honorable mention twice How about Kenji one silver and two goals? Oh my oh my pal in comparison to the Kenji. So He's a gold former gold medalist here My first time joining I got an honorable mention and then I won silver Three times and then I got one bronze as well Okay, so I want to introduce a little bit about one aspect of classical Chinese dance Okay. So basically one of the characteristics of classical Chinese dance is its expressiveness So every single movement has to be driven by inner meaning and that's why you can portray like any different type of character role Emotion or scene with classical Chinese dance movements and in this competition right now There's two different pieces that each performer and competitor has to do One is a self-selected piece where you choose a role that you can portray Well, like a historical character for example, or it could be a scene or an emotion and the other one is a technical dance movement Routine where you had to complete a required set of technical movements Okay So I think we'll talk about when we've competed before what kind of characters we've portrayed and then we can start with Sample. All right guys. So like I said, I competed four times in this competition and every time I chose a different Thank you Will every time I chose a different character and the first three times were like generals and like, you know more serious brave glorious roles Yes, so which characters did you portray specifically a general like you're just a general general like a General general. Yes, you were like a specific person a historical character. You were just Sam who was a general or what? Well, I wanted to be fast But if you want me to get specific with which general I was, okay, I was so the first time I was Xiang Yu Okay, he was doing he was fighting Liu Bang and then he was a very very like he would be considered one of the strongest fighters in Chinese history and when I portrayed him it was when I was in the Okay, I'm going on tangent here. Anyways, go back. So yes, so the first The So your first Is that your first competition you chose? You chose Xiang Yu one of the most heroic and fearsome warriors in Chinese history, right? And he was basically the best you chose him because you're the best fighter. You felt like you were the best fighter, right? Okay, can you just let me be serious? I'm just I'm wondering why why you chose Xiang Yu though. Yeah I'm trying to finish my thing and you're just like poking me. I'm just trying to help you. Okay fine The second time is jogging my memory right now. Okay. So second I was Lin Chong third I was Drawing blank here again. Who was that? Oh Lin Chong again. No, I was not I was actually Zhao Yun who is also a general I'm with the three general generals. He was also a general and He was one of the stronger warriors in Chinese history. He was part of the Every single character you portray Strongest warriors as you can tell I only choose the strong people to portray anyways the last time I was portraying a monk which is completely different from the first three times and then it was really fun because It was a duet and there was two people on stage me and my partner We portrayed monks and then it was a communical piece, but it also had a deeper meaning to it And it was really fun to do Kenji how about you? What characters have you portrayed before? Well first Compete in the competition. I didn't even make made it into final But I chose a character called Jinko one of the most heroic assassin in Chinese history There's a famous he's a very famous assassin, yeah, he's one of the famous most famous assassin in Chinese history but in the end he failed but like the spirit and his Gut was very admired by Chinese people throughout the history to portray dynasty is from I think Was Qing Qing dynasty Q I am before the before the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang Tongyi China unified China. Yeah for a second time. I portrayed the poet Qiyuan About one of his poem called can we're asking the heaven he was seeking for the answer of like a universe life the meaning of you know, like a Who we are those kind of like a questions for the third time? I portrayed John's one one of the philosopher and he was also a scholar I portrayed one of his article. It's hard to explain but like a carefree and a freeness Portray his like carefreeness for the first time I portrayed based on the novels called young John when young yeah young Newton's dad went to war and then died in like a Battlefield and then his son takes over his father's place to like continue his father's Ambition I guess based on the land you and character, but what I wanted to portray in that piece was like feel party Video piety. Yes. Oh, actually that piece actually is just on Kim Just on Kim gave me the idea and he he kind of instructed me to make that piece. He inspired me G-sung is a very talented choreographer. We have to give him that and he actually helped me with my piece to the monk I talked about prior and apparently helped Kenji with his too. It was originally Kim's idea just on the idea and He said I got you can have my idea and I just took his idea Okay, so the pieces that I've chose to portray before my first time was shown in UFA so it's the young UFA and he's one of the most famous generals from the Song Dynasty and he was trying to Defend the Song Dynasty from invaders from the north and then my second time I competed I chose Yang Liu Lang He's also another famous general from the Song Dynasty and he's also fighting against northern invaders I chose to portray the part where he had multiple brothers and also his dad was a general as well So they all died in battle and he was grieving their loss But also finding the determination to continue to move on to defend the country as well And then I did the seven-step poem which is during the three kingdoms period and I chose to portray Tao Zhi and he was a very famous poet and scholar one of the sons of Cao Cao But he got killed unfortunately in my piece, which is a little bit different from history, but artistic portrayal It's okay, I think and then my next year I chose to portray Zhao Yun It was during the battle of Changbanpo where he was fighting against basically Fighting through waves of Cao Cao's army to try to rescue his Lord's son Liu Bei's son. Yep And in that piece, I used a spear in Shaolin UFA I use a spear and then in Yang Liu Lang I also use a spear. So I really like to use a spear as a prop After that, I chose to portray the Monkey King as well So yeah, the Monkey King was really fun as well because I've performed that role in shen yin performances before So it was fun to bring it on stage in a competition as well It's more carefree and more happy but in that dance I had a staff so I tend to lean towards more like martial characters like using like Weapons as a prop. I think when I was young, I really liked to play around with weapons and stuff like that So it's really cool. Here's one fun fact the same pose Sam's so you was actually copy paste from like Williams My Johnny was yes, it was copy paste from Williams William did it first and I did it the next competition afterwards and just when I watched him on stage I was like, oh wow, that's really cool. And I tried it and I wasn't as good but I tried my best I think you did. Okay, Sam. Good job And for the character, I like to portray towards like a more poetic and carefree and more Imaginative and more like a yeah, no restriction. I like the freeness Kenji is very free spirit. So in summary, you like more like carefree Scholars not much restrictions and then just like dancing on stage enjoying it Yep, I like more heroic characters, especially tend leaning towards like more martial types generals and then what was them? I'm more of like the characters that are about to meet their doom actually all my characters eventually died Oh, no, I said all human beings eventually died Human beings eventually died Thank you for that. I can't you I like to portray the sad part of characters Yeah, because you can really flex your emotional or acting muscles and then you just choose to stop man I what you are just too stressed up I'm very stressed up all the time. So I choose the stressed up characters So for this competition for the technical piece you there's a bunch of required techniques that you had to do But a lot of performance also have their own special like signature moves that they're more familiar with So do you guys have any signature moves that you guys have for me? I like to spin Like quarter is one. I think that's one of my Better technique that I have. I tend to like to lean towards the swallow jump So shopping in all kinds of shopping and just in place with the running prep I just like to champions. It's I would say I'm better at it and I like to spin too So salt on salt on the a-line run is something one of my go-to's you've probably seen a lot in the videos actually already Okay for me. I like to do Jens a shitty as an opening move for my technical dance Like I always do that because you're fresh at the beginning side to flip out of some intense music I like fast-paced music very exciting and then techniques. I like to do our technical moves I like to do one of the moves. I would really like is a by lien. Tell y'all man So I practiced that a lot before and I like that and I also like to do circle techniques So techniques where you just chain it in a combo and you just do in a circle We call will the ninja actually because he likes to do techniques that are like fast, you know Like and they he always likes to combo them. Well, I don't know what that has to do with being a ninja though He just looks like a ninja when he dances. Okay, I Like to do explosive techniques, like, you know instant explode, you know, like a chauffeur Boom you know those kind of like So I'm Sophie and shovel hoti, you know, like an instant like Like very powerful techniques powerful and I like the music that has a really uplifting but heavy makes me uplifting and powerful It makes me really pumped yeah, and I forgot to mention I also like like what we call we call a 540 with baguette way. I think I did for like every single competition. Yeah, that's one of my signature moves I guess yeah, okay What else should we talk about guys? We could bring some right now sample is like super. Do you feel sample super nervous? Yeah, I'm super nervous too, you know Like a super legit competition. Let's just be ourselves guys. Don't worry about it I'm so worried because my English I can't explain but like I start thinking like since last barbecue episode I started thinking like how I describe my feeling how to describe whatever happens during my life Okay, I have to say one thing really quick so as dancers I have to tell you that we Communicate with our bodies and that's why when we speak it might not be the best because we usually don't like we don't talk that Much we don't practice speaking So we're always dancing these our bodies to express our emotions our messages and that's why now that we have to talk so much We might not be the best at it. So, please forgive us if our English is not that great and our communication skills are not that great, thank you for your Thank you for your patience and forbearance So classical Chinese dance is really It's really different. I want to say from I gotta stop saying I want to say I'm sorry I say I want to say a lot because we'll say no you're like classical Chinese dance Isn't it? I want to say that's very different because I'm just relax a little bit. I'm representing you're representing sample Don't worry about it. So what are we talking about? You can portray different emotions, right? Yeah, I think that's very important point So the biggest difference between a classical Chinese dance, okay You're you're dancing on stage and there's music and there's other art forms such as a rhythmic rhythmic gymnastics, right? So you're playing music and you're also doing a lot of technical moves and it almost looks like dance but I would say the biggest difference between something like gymnastics and classical Chinese dance is that through these Classical Chinese dance movements. You're portraying an inner meaning or a message, right? So it's not just doing a move where you raise your legs where you like open up your arms and body you have to be Portraying a message and every single movement has to have inner feeling and that's the biggest difference So, how do you guys bring out this inner meaning when you're dancing? What does it mean to you when you're dancing? Do you think about something specifically or do you just think about like doing like let's say a phone? Okay, phone call in is a very classic move in signature move in classical Chinese dance You'll see it all the time when you do a phone call in What are you thinking about when you do it to portray different characters or you could talk about that a little bit giving you? A prompt here. Thank you for the problem. Well, yeah anyways, so when I do different movements what I tend to do is I try to listen to the music or get feeling from music more than Think about something So if the music is long and slow and it drags out then I try to make my movements like so But I really want to talk about actually when I'm portraying a character like if I'm doing the moves usually I have subtext Within the movements that I do So if I'm doing a certain almost all my movements have subtext So on before when I first started out and I didn't know much about acting a lot of what I did was It looked fake it looked fake and then it was not deep enough emotionally and act and my acting was great But once I learned more and more I realized adding subtext into each move really helps you portray the character in my head I would say come I need you but then that comes out without speaking on stage like that So that's just a quick example But I try to add that in almost every move that I do On stage and it really deepens the dance the emotional level of the dance Can you talk a little bit about how you try to portray? Bring out that inner meaning so that audience can really see and feel that when you dance When I dance it's not just acting it's more like expressing the feeling the characters have how do I put it? For Kenji, it feels like you're trying to say like when you're trying to portray a role You really try to become that character like embody that character. Is that what you mean? Yes, but like I'm William you can go first So Sam said that he uses the music the music really helps you get into character and then you have subtext for myself when I'm Dancing or trying to portray a character. I usually don't have subtext like specific Things that I say I use my facial features like your expression really helps your eyes and your body like how you move your body And I think for myself, especially in my eyes that is like what I use a lot So for example, let's say that I'm surrounded by like enemy soldiers and I'm a general fighting in a battle, right? So what I want the audience to feel at that moment is when you look at me Like you can see that I'm surrounded you can see the enemies that I'm facing right now and that I'm in the heat of battle so I think when I try to help them when I'm teaching other dancers because I also coach some other dancers and there's a few Competitors in this competition today that I've coached before so when I'm trying to help them I have them try to bring out this emotion Especially with their eyes and I think the the core of it is something in Chinese is called like a shin-nin So you really have to believe that you're this character in this situation and then the audience can really get into that Like situation when they're watching you So it's really really like spectacular when you can see Performers are really in the zone when they're performing and for me I get almost I get goosebumps when I watch that It's really really like exciting I'm gonna cut candy off real quick because I have something important to say so hard That's also why I love this competition because you can really like just oh man I like is in when we actually have our show There's you have set characters, right? You have set characters and then you might not be the main character or whatnot But then in this competition you can really like stretch your creativity to whatever you want But whatever you want to portray in history or even any contemporary characters You can do it and whatever stories you want to portray you can choose it You can make yourself and that's why I really like this competition It really one it makes me a better dancer because I can try different things But two it's just really it's a really good feeling just to do it You know just to try try different characters and like get into the emotional depth of those characters and really understanding those characters It's for me. It's the process is just amazing. I love it Yeah, so I love every time I come to the competition. I have the same feeling even though I'm not competing I have that feeling where like people are just trying to embody a character or act It's I love that feeling and I love the atmosphere. So I'm glad to be here. Thank you for that work. We're done today Just kidding. That's like a conclusion Wait, I need I need to redeem myself Kenji will try again to How do you like? How do you portray different characters like bring out that inner feeling that inner meaning or maybe even that passion How do you try to bring the audience into that zone when I portray a character? I have to feel that character first if I'm gonna really move the audience or make the audience feel what I feel I have to feel what this character feels first and then that really makes me like it's like a connection between Character and myself and myself to the audience as the process of like creating Character and then into the final Product product that like a really you can communicate with audience. I don't know what I'm saying, but you know It's really strong in Chinese. I don't know. It's very enjoyable. It's very enjoyable I just like acting cuz I got for myself I I'm really bad at expressing because I get stuck every I stuck I stuck every time every single time I tried to describe or explain something. I really like to express myself with you know, like acting dance It feels I can experience that something that I can't Experience in my real life different character gives me a different meaning to my life I Think Kenji you did a really good great job. So so Props to Kenji because first of all, he's Japanese So he grew up speaking Japanese and then he also speaks Chinese as well and also English So he speaks three different languages and English is probably his weakest out of the three, right? I think all three languages are weakest But he's a great communicator Especially when he's dancing he's communicating with the audience. I think right so that's what all dancers enjoy. It has to be like a Communication between the dancer on stage and the audience that that connection is really really strong So Kenji really enjoys that from what I just heard you say I want to make a comment about Kenji actually like I've known him for a while and even though like he's just said his Language is not good. But actually a lot of times he Explains to me with his passion, you know Like his language skills might not be that good But I get a feeling from him when he talks to me Which is I think more important actually then actually just being really good at speaking Like he gets passionate about things and it really moves me. Actually I deliver I Deliver content with my emotion not by words You can also see some dancers warming up behind us They're getting ready to go on right now. So we were just here talking while there They've been working hard warming up and I think we can segue into our next section So the amount of work that it takes to be a classical Chinese actually just any dancer in general an artist So what you see on stage is always like very beautiful very all-inspiring Dancers are flying on stage. They're lifting their legs like to 180 degrees and it's very beautiful what they're showing on stage, but there's a saying in Chinese is Tai Shang Yi Fen Zhong Tai Xia Shi Nian Gong So one minute on stage is equivalent to ten years of hard work off stage And I think that's very true for all dancers So we can talk about a little bit just not too long But about our hardships that we face while dancing our training and then well, yeah, let's let's go from there Do you want to start or you want us? Sure, I will start this time at the hardship Dancing is not just about techniques or movement or just acting It's about like integrating all those elements together and the present to the audience for me. I think was the hardest part Okay for myself one of the difficult things that I had I faced when I was training and dance was More the physicality. So I think as a young kid, I always had a lot of As soon as I started dancing, I had a lot of feeling So like what I mean by that is like the inner feeling and through you know Our movements which is called shin-fa in classical Chinese dance I could bring out the shin-yun like aspect the internal eternal like feeling like really easily So I had a lot of feeling and passion when I dance I would say okay, but for myself I was really weak physically. So I had a lot of difficulty In terms of flexibility and like just jumping and then even like tumbling techniques Those are really difficult for me because I was kind of weak So I had to work really really hard in on that and then for dancers is just really really tough There's actually no breaks. There's no like day off for dancers. You have to be training every day You have to be stretching every single day You have to be taking class dance class every day or else you fall behind you notice that so for me It was just working on that the physicality and then trying to keep up with it because not every day you feel your best You know, you're not gonna feel fresh every day feel good feel like pumped up and ready to go So yeah, it's just like when you're feeling down or like tired. Can you still keep pushing on? Can you still go and stretch even though it hurts? Can you still and push yourself to go practice and jump? Yeah, I completely agree with well because I'm actually kind of similar to that I have a lot of passion too when I dance and then do you just kidding? We all do So the three of us here I think we all really like to act and like when we dance and like our emotion and We have a lot of passion we dance like that's a similarity between the three of us Some people are more like physically strong, but like they're lacking in that inner feeling emotion But for us three inner motion inner we're passionate people. Yeah Let me call attention to the people behind us right now These are the performer these are the contestants actually they're taking a group picture You tell about their colorful costumes. I think they were they just finished their their division. So Good job to all of them Congratulations to you know, they've all worked really really hard. Look how Did my sister finish and I missed her? I think so because she was Looking at you Justin like My sister and brother are both competing and I just missed my sister's Dance, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll watch it on video after Okay, I wanted to elaborate on something really quick Okay before I forget as I come I think not hardest thing is I got for any profession as same thing is like constant con-con-con consistence Constancy consistency. Okay. I missed some is a consistency. Okay, it's the hardest not Not it. Okay, just just cut it. Okay, it's consistency that's going in there Well, I mean like a Sam that we dance for like over 12 years and if a well as I got over 14 year 14 years To push my push ourself to like, you know higher levels or higher standards. I think Yeah, that's always gonna be like them part of the hardship that we're gonna face Dancing is a form of art and then like it's it's about life It's like got your your inner whatever You're too far away from the market like this You have to be closer to the mic sound so pissed at you I'm very skilled of will he's a very strict teacher and a strict friend For every dancer and for every artist what they struggle in is very different So there's no like, you know, it's not the same for everyone So I think we can wrap this up now All right. So thank you Kenji for joining us today. And thank you Sam for having the pay. I don't know Thank you Sam for being here. You're supposed to be here. Anyway, you don't have to thank me Okay, don't think Sam But I think we should wish all the contestants like good luck in this competition If you win first second third honorable mention if you even made it to the finals what's really really important I think is just competing taking part in it and improving yourself. All right, so Congratulations all the answers Congratulations guys, you've guys worked hard Silence. Okay good. That's a wrap for this I'm gonna go interview my sister. So my little sister is also competing and she just finished and I missed her piece So I'm sorry for that. How'd you do? Okay, I guess You have to be more confident It was great What character are you portraying? one girl I'm supposed to look at you. Am I supposed to look at the camera? Please take this mic. Can I just go follow anyone? All right Hello people The song of drifting sleeves, what is it about it's about the poetry of classical Chinese dance Okay, moving on. Hello Karina Fu. What is your gym all about? It's about a show Dao Ren. What is a show Dao Ren a Taoist Being shy in the forest not being in a bamboo forest Okay, we have someone being handsome in a bamboo forest next. Hello, Kathy Wu from Australia. I'm a statue Can you tell us what what is your story about I'm a statue that comes to life you want to look at the camera no Now a troll from Japan everybody I'm put put Inspired by the spring And just you know, I'm Li Qingzhao who is Li Qingzhao a poet from the Song Dynasty Carol Huang What is your piece about? Needle without system. I'm you don't say this is from a trinity. Oh, yeah sent in You crazy. Hey, I can't eat. I'm a library. Needle without shit. Shit. Some more inspiration What's your one task I will she likes to dance umbrella dances the girls are very interesting Alright my little brother Victor just finished by the way, I have a little brother Victor We look pretty similar you as you can tell and he just finished his piece Yeah, peace that was cultivator. So I really wanted to do this dance to show like the spiritual aspect and Cultivation aspect is really important for Chinese culture. I really enjoyed it and you did a great job Congratulations