Opening pose by Ballroom teen

Opening pose by Ballroom teen

The past few nights, Sunday to Wednesday December 7 to 10, I was having a great time at the inaugural Great Eastern International Kids Performing Festival.

The event, sponsored by Singapore insurance company Great Eastern, featured young talents from all over the world, including an excellent four-piece jazz band comprising jazz prodigies from Indonesia, and young rockers from the Paul Green Scool of Rock, all the way from USA.

A highlight of the festival was the Singapore Performing Arts Junior Championships, a talent contest for children aged 6 to 16. They included singers, dancers and musicians, in categories that included classical, stage musical, jazz, pop, ballroom, hip hop and more.

What a treat it was! And for the few photographers in the audience, it was a double treat!

I sat through the entire contest over four nights – 32 kids in the quaterfinals, 20 in the semi-finals and 10 in the grand finals. I thoroughly enjoyed the performances, many of which were of astonishingly high standards.

In the process, I took about 1,800 images. It might seem a lot, but not really when you consider the number of performers, including both the contestants and the guest artistes.

From that tremendous selection of images, I deleted more than a thousand. And of the remaining 700, this is my absolute favourite. The boy is, if I remember correctly, 14 years old – although he looks quite adult here – and he competed with a partner in the Ballroom category.

My artist and musician friend David, who is very astute in his observation, said this teen is a natural talent and that “all his poses are perfect”.

David is right. When I looked through my photos of the boy’s dance sequence, it was like a series of perfect model poses, starting with this opening pose.

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