en arabesque

un talent de fille

Thanks to much encouragement and investment from two parents who worked hard to make sure that their children had a better life, I spent most of my life immersed in performing arts. All the discipline and practice helped shape me into who I am today. It influenced how I decide whether or not things are aesthetically pleasing to me.

Harp

Now that I'm grown up and can choose what to learn, I've taken up Harp lessons with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Piano was a pain to play with my small hands, but Harp is no problem. It feels so natural to do an octave for once. The instrument is so beautiful and makes such relaxing sounds.

I started off my studies with a Lyon & Healy Troubadour lever harp in Ebony, as it was a good precursor to a pedal harp. When the Lyon & Healy Chicago Concert Grand Extended pedal harp was available in Ebony, I went to Lyon & Healy in Chicago with my teacher, in order to select the best harp of the batch to bring back to Canada.

Ballet & Pointe

I began taking Ballet and Jazz lessons at the age of four. Eventually, I ended up studying Ballet under the Royal Academy of Dance Syllabus at Ontario School of Ballet for many years. I made many friends and never considered going pro, even though I continued to take classes when most had quit.

When I turned twelve, I began taking pointe classes and ended the Jazz classes. My first shoe was a Capezio Contempura, which was recommended to me during fitting. My instructor liked it since this particular shoe forced me to work even harder when in transition to relevé. I still remember how hard breaking into that shoe was in comparison to the other girls who used Gaynor Mindens! As I got older and my body changed, so did my shoe preference. I ended up with Capezio Aerial since I have high arches.

Everyone always asks me if pointe hurts. In my case, I never had problems with toe pains even though we didn't have fancy gel padding back in the day. I always made sure to position padding well and have trimmed nails before class. I mainly suffered from aching legs due to taking so many classes each week and being slightly anemic.

Piano

I started taking Piano lessons around the age of six, following my older brother who had already begun taking lessons years before. We eventually ended up taking private one-on-one classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Our instructors were really dedicated but like the Elizabeth Bennet quote on this layout, I wasn't very good at it because I never practiced enough. Our piano is a YAMAHA upright in Ebony.

Flute & Vocal

I first started playing the flute when I was around ten years old at school. I also tried the piccolo for a short time and know how to play a recorder, which was required. I learnt that I had a natural affinity for playing any kind of flute. However, the instruments made my natural overbite worsen with all the constant practice.

At the same time I took flute, I began studying vocal arts and continued for several years after I quit flute. I have a very childlike choir voice that is alto. When I reached adolescence, my already small range was no longer able to reach as low as it used to.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Around the same time I took Jazz classes, I took Rhythmic Gymnastics as well. I spent a lot of time with the rope, hoop, ball and especially the ribbon! We didn't do batons though. The experience gave me precise hand-eye coordination and helped with flexibility. To this day I'm very handy with throwing and catching objects on the right 'ends' of them but not so much with juggling.

Traditional Dance

Under instructors at other schools, I spent years learning Hawaiian and varied classical ballroom dances. From relatives and friends I learnt Filipino, Chinese and Korean dances. Like with Ballet, each of those had several specific dances and styles within them that I had to learn; like Korean buchaechum, Filipino tinikling and the Tahitian.