May 2, 2014

In the Life of DancerGal: 2014 BCAA Nominee Awards Party!

A total of 105 nominees were ecstatic when they were announced that they were eligible for the 11th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (BCAA or Cammies) The evening, hosted by Alexis Bistro, The Gardens Mall was truly a wonderful experience. It was such a joy to see arts practitioners from all genres of performing arts, gather together. One can only imagine the amount of creativity brewing within the community.

The theme for this year’s Cammies is “Pop Yeh Yeh” pays tribute to the 1960’s and the three legends that embody its spirit of creative freedom. The three legends are none other than Tan Sri P. Ramlee, Dato’ Usman Awang, and Datuk Krishen Jit. This was all announced by emcee Malik Taufiq, who himself was a recipient of a Cammie at the 7th Cammie awards.

Personally, there were some standout nominees to me. For dance, it would have to be Flatland which I was able to watch. Choreographed by Suhaili Micheline and produced by TerryandtheCuz, this one-of-a-kind piece was nominated for 6 out of 8 categories under Dance.

For musical theatre, there are two main nominees that catch my eye. Firstly, The Producers by PAN Productions. Being a musical theatre fan, I can’t help but remind myself of the time I first watched The Producers, the movie-musical. I remember the songs and the depth of the musical which PAN Productions and specifically director, Nell Ng, managed to help us understand the characters better and made it very wonderful to watch. The Producers is nominated for 6 out of 7 categories under Musical Theatre. Secondly has to be the amazingly written and composed piece by Nick Choo, The Edge. I watched The Edge four times and I cried for all four. Having had a personal experience with suicide (no, I have never attempted suicide!), this musical really touches people right in the heart. It was such a joy to watch and is dark and deep in a way that I really enjoyed. Not to mention, the music was memorable. The Edge is nominated for 6 out of 7 categories under Musical Theatre as well. Wow, that’s quite a tight fight.

Regardless of the categories, here’s wishing all the nominees all the best and may your work continue to motivate others to create and work magic to the performing arts industry. In the awards, we may all be competing against one another, but we cannot forget that we are all in the same industry. In order for the industry to prosper, we will need to share our knowledge and creative ideas with one another. Who knows? Your ideas may become reality some day.

Thanks a huge bunch to BOH and Kakiseni for inviting me! :) I had a great night out and was pretty bummed that I missed the other 2 events though :(