Dance Contest Judge

Today, I was asked by Era and Mimi to judge the Yawza Finals Dance Contest. Yawza is the syllabic reverse of "sayaw" which is the local word for dance. I was completely taken by surprise.

Funny, some people (Mimi) still remember my good old dancing days. The present population are too new to the company to know about "The Blenders" and the company's ballroom dancing of yore. Maybe it's time to show these young 'uns a thing or two about dancin' (owww, my aching shoulder.)

Other than myself, there was Badette and Magee who sat as judges in the "Yawza" Competition. The level of competition, being the finals, was very high. Costumes were great! And the moves were fantastic. The theme was 70's and 80's. So we gave our comments "Pinoy Idol" style to the contestants right after their numbers. It was my first time to judge a contest like this (oh wait, I did judge a Christmas Dance contest many years ago where Mimi was a group member). I wasn't sure of my comments.

But still, thanx to my training as a Toastmaster in evaluations, I was able to give really good comments. And it was simply with the Kick-Kiss-Kick formula. Since I was the only one who spoke in English, I felt the silence when I spoke especially when it came to the "Kick" part. I felt that many liked my comments.

Here are the three dance groups that competed that day.


For our efforts in judging, we were treated to free lunch! When I got in the conf. room for lunch, it was filled with all the contestants having their lunch too. I felt that all eyes were on me as I entered, with the question "Who IS this guy?"

Later I asked Anthony if my segment of the comments was OP (that's Che's acronym for "Out of Place"). Anthony said they were good and sounded formal which was needed. I thought so because there was so much hooting and howling from the audience before I spoke.

Benj called to say he liked my comments too and asked if I would like to help emcee in the next Service Awards. Hmmm. I'm not too sure I want to go. I don't have anything really formal to wear (that fits!).

Later in the evening I delivered my 2nd Toastmasters speech in the "Speaking to Inform" manual which is Resources for Informing. My speech is entitled Blog Basics Layout. Lolet found my speech as well as Neil's "Math Culture" highly informative.

I really wish this sore shoulder would ease up soon as the weather's really beautiful lately (warm and sunny). The results of the x-ray will be coming out tomorrow and hope it's all good.

It's funny why I was even asked for the x-ray of my left shoulder. Here's what transpired during my consultation with the doc that led to the x-ray request:

Doc: Dapat siguro, ipa-xray na natin 'yan. Pero teka. Iyan bang buto mo sa balikat ay tumutunog?
Me: Hindi naman doc.
Doc: Meron bang pamamaga yang balikat mo?
Me: Wala naman doc.
Doc: Nabunggo ba o nasagi iyang balikat mo?
Me: Hindi rin doc.
Doc: Ah sige, ipa-xray na nga natin.
Me: (scratches head)

In spite of all those negative responses, he STILL thinks I ought to have an x-ray. :)