Category: Arts News

Front Page News
December 2, 2022
Mr. Brian Nieh, Anthropomorphic Fortune Cookie, Teller of Stories and Dad Jokes

Dance exams, Holiday Showcase, Winter Wonders performance and art exhibition, and more are all coming up soon this month! A semester’s worth of hard work, dedication, rehearsals, ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ by our students (and staff) will come to fruition over the next few weeks, and we’re all (hopefully) very excited! In light of these pending achievements, I’d like to share a few inspirational quotes from my time as a pro-dancer-wannabe-trainee:

“Perfect practice makes perfect.” The simpler version you hear is often “practice makes perfect,” but as my teachers would love to remind us, you have to practice the right way for it to be perfect, lest you build up bad habits or incorrect technique. So an apt supplementary quote could be “work smarter, not harder.” Practice efficiently, correctly, smartly, and you’ll Twice the Results for Half the Effort (事半功倍 shì bàn gōng bèi) – Chinese Idiom Meaning: the right approach saves effort and leads to better results. Although I can imagine my teachers saying instead “work smarter, AND harder,” but I digress.

“磨杵成针 (mó chǔ chéng zhēn)” means no matter how difficult or challenging a task is, it can be done as long as there is perseverance. One of our tumbling teachers used to time us in handstands, and then promptly push us to hold it for one second longer each time we do it. He says, one second may not be much, but after some time you’ll be handstanding for hours. Not exactly sure if he said hours, we were kind of upside down during his lecturing. Point being, if you take baby steps and slowly chip away at a seemingly insurmountable task, you may find it not as intimidating as it once was. As yet another quote says, “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish when you don’t get in your own way.

Finally, “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are NO LIMITS.” Well said, olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps, well said.

I suppose it’s the end of the year, end of the semester, and the holidays getting me into a particular fortune-cookie-ing mood. But honestly, we are all extremely proud of the hard work all of our students have put in, and equally excited at how you all will flourish as you continue striving forward. Keep it up, enjoy the experience, and (figuratively) break a leg!

Oh right a dad joke… why did the dancer cross the road? To do the combination on the other side.

Cheers!