2020 club competition

This year's club competition was unforgettable! The event aligned with 2020's theme of expecting the unexpected. We, the novice/intermediate ladies, were just about to finish our floordrill routine when the blackout started. Some ladies joked that we could use this to our advantage as the judges would miss fine details. 

Family members were allowed to watch the show which was held in a large arena venue. However, the march past with our sashes and the men's marching challenge were cancelled. These two proceedings are a crowd favourite each year. 

I love how the annual club competition gives the club community a yearly gathering to watch and celebrate girls and ladies flourishing at physie. Thank you teachers, volunteers, supporters, venue staff, and my clubmates for making this year's event so special. 

Read more:

2018 Club competition

2016 Club competition 

Practice competition 2020

It has been a long 10 months since I last performed physie. I'd forgotten the feeling on putting on heavy-duty fishnet tights and the fear of accidentally pulling or ripping the mesh.

The showcase was remarkably different from any of my previous physie performances. Usually, dancers would have had at least three opportunities to compete both in informal and judged settings by the end August. 

It was a nice sunny day outside, however, it felt quite chilly to me indoors. I didn't remove my jacket until we had to line up for marching in height order. The practice competition took place in a large sports arena where I'd physied on several occasions. At first, I could hear the lag between the sound bouncing off the walls from the speakers, it was quite boomy. Then, I concentrated on the music. A small audience may have contributed to making the venue 'ring' more as few people were there to absorbed the sound. All the ladies were relieved that we made it to the end of our performance and we felt not so cold anymore.

Well done to all competitors and especially the beginner ladies who have learnt their first set of physie routines through a mixture of online and in-person lessons. Thank you to all the volunteers who made this event happen. I am so grateful to perform physie after this hiatus. 

Getting better at physie during isolation

It has been a while since I wrote my article for the self-improvement blog series, so I thought I'd share some activities I've been doing during isolation to improve physie. I have been doing a bit of cross training in similar disciplines to boost my overall fitness and flexibility. There are so many great video resources by inspiring and qualified teachers. 

Physie: Watch the training videos and other resources from your association and club. Have a look at other girls/ladies outside of your age/category and learn something from them. Are there extra resources/online sessions delivered by your club or association? If so, why not join in?

Ballet: Pointed toes, balancing, lengthening limbs and control are transferable skills to physie. 

Pilates: Core strength and control can help with balances and floor exercises. 

Yoga: Mental wellbeing, breathing, strength and flexibility can help you become a well-rounded physie girl/lady. 

Check out my other self-improvement blogs here.

Physie online/ April 2020 lesson journal

Our classes have moved to an online platform where members can share and upload progress videos and asking teachers/group members for feedback. Just last week, the club launched live lessons so that we get the motivation to dance at our normal times and learn routines as if we were at class.

A benefit of the online platform is that we get access to the tutorials throughout the week which might help learning routines. We can also pause, rewind and slow down the speed of the recordings.

However, a few pitfalls include the lack of social interaction (especially our prolonged drink breaks), no peripheral vision, re-watching can get boring, view is sometimes obscured (figuring out the intricacies of each move). Also, I am yet to figure out how to use the online platform to filter tasks I haven't completed.

So far, I have mastered only the warm-up and exercises routines ... Three more to learn.
Thank you to the teachers and volunteers who make remote physie fun!

Adversity and resilience in performance

From losing your footing to losing a hairpiece on the dance floor, adversity in performance is inevitable. Here's the newest post in the self-improvement blog series on how to deal with challenging situations and overcoming them.

Here are some undesirable situations that I'm sure physie girls/ladies can relate to:

• Sweat in your eyes
• Safety pins unclip 
• Memory lapse - forgetting the next move
• Hairpiece/jewellery falls off (seniors/ladies) 
• Muscle cramp

The aforementioned situations can hypothetically happen to anyone, so below is a collage of tips to deal with setbacks in performance (click to enlarge):