Greetings once again friends,

The SoC dance open classes will be starting really soon and I can't wait to meet all of you. Some of you may be wondering what might actually be happening since all we did was mention we will be having open classes with no further elaboration so here is the low-down of what will be happening.

Starting next week, we will be having three classes a week for three weeks (on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) from 7-9pm @ outside Seminar Room 1, COM1 (I'll include directions at the bottom of the post). Classes will start at 7pm sharp so please arrive 15 minutes early to warm up. Depending on the choreo, classes may extend to 9.30pm so be prepared (if you need to leave at 9pm sharp regardless, we won't stop you =D).

I am a street style dancer so I will only be covering street dances during the open classes. Nevertheless, I will try to cover as much ground as I can so over the nine classes that we have, I will be covering styles such as L.A. Hip Hop, Popping, Jazz Funk and KPop. I will cater to the speed of the entire class so you need not be shy even if you have no prior dance experience.

Lastly and most importantly, please come properly attired. Anything which is comfortable and does not restrict your movement will be fine. We will be dancing on tiled floors so sneakers are a must. The choreos will be a little intense so please remember to bring your own water bottles and stay hydrated.

That is all I have to say for now. If you haven't already signed up, please hit the 'Join Us' tab above so that we can keep you posted with the latest Rag updates. With that, I look forward to meeting you all next Monday =D

~ Jesmond, your friendly SoC Rag Dance Choreographer

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Directions to SoC

Map

We are located at the School of Computing, COM1 building as noted by the red marker. The most convenient way to get to SoC is via the A1 shuttle bus (refer to the map for detailed bus stop listings). At night, the shuttle buses run at a frequency of 30 minutes so the wait might be a little long.

If you are coming from Kent Ridge MRT, exit at NUH and board the A1 bus on the NUH side of the road. Ride the bus for about nine stops. The SoC bus stop is located within a carpark so it is pretty hard to miss. Once alighted, enter COM1 through the main entrance and walk upstairs to level two. We will be right there so you can't miss us =D
 
Greetings friends,

I have a very important announcement to make. As a precursor to the start of Rag dance, we will be organising open classes for all School of Computing students, past, present and near future. Unfortunately, we do not really have the budget to hiring external professional instructors so you will have to bear with having me conduct the lessons >.<

We have not finalised the logistics for the classes yet but the tentatively we will start conducting the classes from the last week of May till the second week of June (just before the start of our Freshman Orientation Camp 2012 from 15 June to 19 June, more details for the camp at http://camp.nuscomputing.com/). We will be catering towards a more beginner crowd so do not be afraid if you have no prior dance experience. Even if you do, feel free to come down anyway and kill my choreos. We will not be covering any of the choreos that will be used for Rag so these classes are legitimately open classes and not just extra practice sessions for Rag.

The most important point about these classes that I need to highlight is that we will not force any commitments on anyone who comes for the classes. So if you are unsure of your dance abilities or if you do not know if you can commit to Rag or if you simply have some free time on your hands, just come down for the open classes. 

Speaking from the heart, I have a few reasons for hosting these open classes. Firstly, it is because I enjoy dancing and I want to spread that love to the people in SoC. I know a few people who want to try picking up dancing but are too shy or too unsure of their own abilities and I want to hopefully give people like them a start. It may not be much but I want to share my dance experiences with more than just those who will be committing to Rag dance. Secondly, for those who are interested in joining Rag dance, it is a chance for you to see my style and experience how I teach. I will be choreographing majority of this year's Rag performance and I think it is good for those who wish to join to have a taste of what it will be like before they dive head first into Rag. Lastly, speaking on behalf of the Rag committee as a whole, I believe that Rag is more than just the performance at the end. It is about the experiences that we will have over this summer. As such, I hope these classes help make Rag dance more than just a 6 minute performance in August. I want it to be a summer long dance experience open to anyone in SoC.

Now, if you are still reading up till this point, it means that you are at least somewhat interested in these classes. As I mentioned above, we are still finalising the dates, timings and venues for these classes so please do sign up at the 'Join Us' tab above. I emphasise again these classes are commitment-free and are open to all SoC students.

That is all I have to say for now. To my fellow SoC students, all the best for you incoming finals. To all SoC alumni, do come back and share your words of wisdom if you can. To the incoming freshies, welcome to SoC, I hope you enjoy your four-year stay here =D

Looking forward to seeing all of you,
Jesmond, your friendly SoC Rag Dance Choreographer
 
Well, it seems I am the last of the four of us to write a blog post so I better post this quick >.<

Quick introduction. I'm Jesmond and I was the dance choreographer for SoC Rag last year. I have been dancing for a few years now but I was not a part of my freshman year Rag (fyi, I'm a year 2 student right now). This was only because I missed the earlier Freshman Orientation Camp so by the time I found out about Rag and Rag Dance, there was only a week or two left to Rag Day. Nevertheless, I made friends with that year's Rag Dance choreographer who then "arrowed" me to become the following year's SoC Rag Dance Choreographer (not that I was forced into it or anything. I was most delighted to be given the chance to choreograph such a big performance). So that's that. I was now in charge of putting up a dance performance using exclusively Computing and Computer Engineering students without having any real Rag experience.

I walked into Rag with two ideals in mind. First, I wanted to accept any dancer regardless of experience or ability just as long as they joined because they wanted to dance. Second, I wanted my dancers to be self-motivated so rather than slave-driving everyone, I wanted to get every dancer to have a sense of belonging to the performance they were in. Little did I know how difficult this journey would be for me.

I'll let you in on a little (not-so-secret) secret. SoC has never been very known for being active in the non-academic side of university life, unlike our happening neighbors Biz and FASS (at least as far as faculty events are concerned). So while Business had about 1000 FRESHIES alone auditioning for Rag dance, I had just over 20 dancers after considering everyone who could come (including some seniors who couldn't be there half the time because of summer exchanges or internships). Moreover, to the exception of 4 dancers and myself, I was dealing with a crowd with no dance experience whatsoever. It didn't really help that I pulled all the stops with my choreography and included technical dance genres like popping, locking, waacking and shuffling.

I had only two goals I wanted to achieve at the end of Rag. The first was to simply put up a performance the each dancer in it could be proud of. The second was to train any SoC student who had a passion for dance into the dancer that they could be (or at very least, aim to get close to that). It was an incredibly tiring journey (both physically and mentally) across those three months, with hours upon hours of conditioning, non-stop practice runs and the occasional emotional flare-up/breakdown but we managed to all come out of proud to be a part of Rag.

Some people ask me why I decided to become the Rag Dance choreographer again this year. There are a couple reasons why. There is a part of me who wants to get some redemption from the previous Rag. My sole regret from last year's Rag is that it could have been a lot better. So now, having been through Rag once, I hope that all my new-found experience and knowledge will help me make this year's Rag a legacy I will be proud of. Then there's a part of me that just became attached to Rag. Our philosophy of Rag has always been to enjoy the process as much as possible rather than focus solely on winning and become all miserable in the end. As a result, between all the trainings and meltdowns, I became closer to all my fellow Raggers and closer to Rag itself. Rag slowly grows on you over the months and is probably one of the major reasons that drive us to do it.

I'll end of with a little insight to what dancers can expect from this upcoming Rag. For starters, it won't be your average mass dance-type choreography. I didn't go easy last year and I don't intend to drop the standard this year either. However, I assure you that regardless of your dance background (or lack thereof), if you come because you want to dance you will be able to survive. The Rag dancers from last year's Rag stand testament to that. I believe in nurturing dancers and not robots doing choreography so as long as you come with a desire to dance, it doesn't matter how many left feet you have.

With that, I bid you, the reader, goodbye and if you are/want to be a dancer, I look forward to seeing you over this summer to remember.

- Jesmond, your friendly SoC Rag Dance Choreographer