Sherilyn’s Modern Dance – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Sherilyn Shines at Asia Open Dance Championship with Gold Medal Win

Last Saturday, Sherilyn achieved another incredible milestone by winning a gold medal in the Modern Contemporary (Solo) dance at the Asia Open Dance Championship, held at the PJ Performing Arts Centre. This triumph is just one of a few in what has been a week filled with success, as she has now secured two gold medals and one Double Platinum medal from two different dance competitions. It’s a testament to her unwavering commitment and love for dance, which has fueled her through rigorous training and numerous sacrifices.

Despite being a full-time university student, Sherilyn attends dance classes at two different studios, often squeezing in three to four sessions a week after her academic day ends. It’s not easy juggling both her studies and her passion for dance, but her perseverance has paid off, and I couldn’t be prouder of her. Sherilyn’s love for competition runs deep, and I have no doubt that she will continue to participate in many more dance contests in the future. In fact, one of her goals is to secure a Talent Scholarship from her university, which would open up even more opportunities for her to compete at higher levels.

As long as Sherilyn remains happy and her university grades aren’t compromised, I will continue to support her dream. She has already proven that she can excel in both her academic pursuits and her passion for dance. This week, in the midst of all the excitement, she is also preparing to embark on her first year at university, where she will be pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Architecture.

No. of times viewed = 17

Sherilyn Wins Gold in Get The Beat Dance Competition

Today has been an exciting day for Sherilyn, as she just won two prestigious medals at the Get The Beat (GTB) dance competition! GTB is an internationally touring dance competition, and this marks Sherilyn’s second time shining on their stage. Her first victory came six years ago when she was just 13 years old, making this win even more special.

In the hip hop category for her age group, Sherilyn wowed the judges and secured a gold medal. She didn’t stop there—she clinched a Double Platinum medal in her Contemporary dance performance.

The day wasn’t without its hiccups, though. Sherilyn accidentally left her dance studio jacket behind at home, and with little time to spare before her performance at the PJ Performing Arts Centre, she ordered a Grab bike driver to get the jacket from home. I was eating breakfast half way and had to hurriedly change and bring the jacket down to the Grab driver. Despite the small drama, she stayed focused and delivered stellar performances on stage.

Today’s achievement has certainly made her a very happy camper, and as always, we’re incredibly proud of her dedication, passion, and hard work.

Grab rider picking up Sherilyn’s jacket from our condo

No. of times viewed = 24

Roundup of Updates For The Week

My lasered foot for the removal of a viral wart is almost healed (about 98%). It’s no longer in multiple layers of plaster, bandage and cling wrap but only in a plaster. I can walk pretty normally now but I am still wary of putting too much pressure on the wound as it is not 100% closed up yet. I’ve not started to run yet, but walking a lot more than I did two weeks ago.

This is how my foot looked a week ago. The reason why I used plastic food cling wrap to wrap the area is because the plaster does not stick on well to the heel. Because of the location of the wound, it’s hard for the plaster to stick securely, thus the use of cling wrap.

Picture on top – the wound as of 25 July 2024 vs. wound on 11 July 2024 at the bottom.

I decided not to put any food photos in this post as food and graphic wound photos just don’t chime in.🤮 No matter how delicious the food may look, it won’t look appetizing next to a bloody wound.😜

Here’s the link to the You Tube video of Sherilyn’s dance cover for the song Gyubin – Really Like You by her dance studio. It’s a Kpop dance performed in The Starhill, KL last week.

Can you spot her?

No. of times viewed = 20

MCO Day 53 ~ 9 May 2020 (Saturday)

My day didn’t start off too smoothly today. I’m utterly disappointed with someone but I shall not talk about the specifics here. The person may be reading this post or someone known to this person may be reading it and this post may get to this particular person somehow. The internet can be agathokakological – it can save and make lives easier and also destroy them. This issue is going to bother me for some time and there’s still no solution to it. Only time and divine intervention can resolve this issue. 😓

After a hiatus of almost two months since the MCO started, Sherilyn’s gym has finally started its first taekwondo class via Zoom today, for a short half an hour. Hopefully lessons can be more regular now to keep this girl occupied with something productive. I’ve paid for her grading fees before the MCO started and it looks like the grading may be conducted via Zoom. Besides taekwondo, her Muay Thai and Kickboxing classes will be cancelled indefinitely until a vaccine for Covid-19 prevention is available in the market, I think, as close contact sports are still prohibited. Even if it’s allowed, I’m not sure if I would risk Sherilyn going to the gym and dance studio.

She pushed her bed to a corner of the bedroom and attended her taekwondo lesson in the room.

The girls made dumplings with their grandma in the afternoon. A good activity to keep them away from their gadgets for a couple of hours. But the aftermath is very messy with powdery floor, table and kitchen tops. The girls helped to clean up and I had a few more rounds of wiping to do. 🥴

Filling of minced meat, julienned cabbage and carrots, sesame seed oil and soy sauce. Sherilyn made a batch of vegan filling composed of shiitake mushrooms and onions.

Dinner: braised organic bitter melon with chicken, stir-fried organic sweet potato leaves and 12345 pork ribs.

The moment that Sherilyn has been waiting for finally arrived at 8pm today. The announcement for the winners of the Star of AISS Talent Award was made and she’s the second runner up! The prize consists of RM500 in cash and a RM6k scholarship to study at Aspiration International School!

With so much uncertainties over the near future caused by La Corona, I don’t think we will accept the partial scholarship. Even after subsidy from the partial scholarship, it’s still a hefty sum to cough out every month for tuition fees. The prize came at the wrong time but Sherilyn is very contented with this achievement. With her tenacity and will power, I am sure she will be able to win something bigger in the near future, perhaps a full scholarship and perhaps even realizing her wildest dreams of studying in a renowned university in Canada.

No. of times viewed = 46

MCO Day 45 & 46 ~ 1 & 2 May 2020 (Friday & Saturday)

Friday, 1 May 2020
I didn’t realize that today is Labor’s Day until I woke Alycia up at 7:30 a.m. as usual for her Monday – Friday online classes conducted by her high school teachers and she told me groggily that today is a public holiday. Oh well, it makes no difference whether it’s a public holiday or weekend as every day feels the same, for the past 45 days 😬 In our pre-MCO days, I would be checking my calendar regularly to see when the next public holiday would fall on. I was always chronically sleep deprived and always looked forward to public holidays so that I could catch up on my beauty sleep. I’ve repaid all my sleep debt now and I’m raring to get back to my old norm when school reopens, which is something that no one knows when. But people are speculating that school will reopen in June, for 5th and 6th formers first.

Saturday, 2 May 2020
My car is still stuck at the car repair shop and I am worried about her. The car is parked outside the workshop and exposed to all elements. She’s always sheltered in our condo car park and have never been exposed for so many days in the outdoors. I hope to have her back by Monday next week.

During this MCO, there seems to be a reversal of role between Sherilyn and me. I’m like the daughter telling her what to bake and cook and she’ll settle the rest 😆 As she has all the time in the world now, she does all the baking and experiments at home blithely. I would be happy to bake and cook too if there’s someone to pay and buy all the ingredients and clean up the mess for me after I’m done playing masak-masak. I do miss the 10 years when we had a live-in maid to help out. Those were the years that I cooked and baked bread the most as I had a good helper to help me in the aftermath. Now, whatever I crave to eat, I have to consider the aftermath first.

Today Sherilyn made lemonade and a tantalizing zesty yummy lemon curd (Malaysians would call it Lemon Kaya). We have an excess of lemons in the fridge as hubs didn’t know that we still have lemons and bought another bag! The lemon curd is so yummy that I’ve asked our baking queen to make more next week 😋

The beautiful yellow hue comes from a little turmeric powder, besides lemon zest.

Today Sherilyn finally revealed the video that she’s been working so hard on for the past 3 days. It’s a talent video that she submitted to Aspirations International School for an online talent competition. She was recently chosen as the top 10 finalists and this video is for the finals. If she’s the winner, she gets a RM1k cash prize plus a scholarship to study in this school. So yeah, we appreciate your time and help to vote her 😘.

Sherilyn made the music for the video using piano, guitar, glass wines, sound of knifes clanking and a combo of computer generated musical instruments. She has no formal lessons on piano or video-making skill but managed to churn out a beautiful video. She learnt this piano piece in 3 days just for this submission.

How to vote:

You can view her video on these 3 platforms, which you also have to vote for her on the same 3 platforms:

1) On http://www.aspirationis.edu.my/SATA20-FINAL – click on finalist #2 Sherilyn Yap and click VOTE

2) On Facebook – just LIKE her post : https://www.facebook.com/AspirationIS/videos/681576175993970/

3) On Instagram – please click on the heart icon on the post: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_pL8L2hw_g/…

Voting starts from 1 May – 7 May 2020. Please help to share and like / heart and vote her posts too.

Thank you SO SO MUCH for your votes and time peeps! ❤️

No. of times viewed = 36

Asia Junior Got Talent Finals, 1 December 2019

The Asia Junior Got Talent Finals held on Sunday, 1 December 2019 at the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) saw 48 extremely talented finalists competing to vie for the first prize of USD1,000. Some of the talents are from China, Norway, Indonesia and Thailand.

Competition was so stiff that I really didn’t think that Sherilyn would stand a chance to emerge as the top 20 winners, let alone the top three winners. All the finalists wore splendid costumes with elaborate make-up. Their dancing and singing skills were impeccable. All of them are not new to international competitions. And a handful of the finalists are students at the Amber Chia Academy.

There were 8 judges at the competition. I can’t remember the names of all the judges but the most prominent ones whom I remember are world renowned magician Andrew Lee, Beatbox expert Koujee, co-founder of Asia Junior Got Talent Amelia Lee and violinist Dennis.

Magician Andrew Lee, who shot to fame with his daring knife and card trick on Asia’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent is the first Malaysian to perform at the London New Year’s Day Parade to usher in 2019. He’s one very amazing guy, who’s not only dashing and confident but extremely charming. Well, what do you expect from a magician; he sure can charm any girl! And he’s the judge who called Sherilyn back to the stage after her performance, got someone to pass her the mic so that he could hear Sherilyn’s interpretation of what her dance depicted and gave her some very encouraging words.

It takes someone with hell a lot of guts and tenacity to stand in front of 8 judges at the set with blinding lights and talk, dance, sing and flaunt their talent. I’m one who can never do it. I wonder where Sherilyn inherits her guts from.

All 48 finalists of the AJGT:

Of all the 48 contestants, Sherilyn was the least dressed up. She was dressed in rags with no lipstick. She used fake blood (bought at a Halloween stall recently) on her body and painted her face with black eye shadow. She really looked like a kidnap victim and very much like a vagabond poacher on the street too. The ragged t-shirt wasn’t her choice of costume. But when she could not find an apt white dress from the mall, she came up with the rags herself using a new white tee that she’s recently bought.

Sherilyn’s dance depicts a girl who’s been held bondage and tied up for years and when she finally escapes, she unleashes her freedom and euphoria through a powerful dance. I was in serious doubt that she could wow the judges with her ragged costume and lack of make-up with messed up hair. Watching each contestant present their impeccable dance in their immaculate make-up and props made me even more nervous. How could my dancer in rags compare to them? When it was finally Sherilyn’s turn, my heart thumped so loudly and I hyperventilated so loudly that I was certain those seated next to me could hear it HAHAHA!!

Sherilyn, your mom’s heart can’t take this kind of stress and anxiety anymore! But you said you’re not going to stop competing. You should know your mom’s weak heart. It’s not meant for this kind of stress!!

But Sherilyn made it to the top 20 winners!! And I just could not believe my ears when I heard her name and number announced 😱

With judge Koujee:

With one of the top 20 finalists – a Latin dance couple (they’re only 12 years old and what a cute dance couple they make!) who performed extremely well in their routine. Sherilyn made a few friends from this competition, including the contestant from China.

My 8-hour camp at FINAS wasn’t that bored as I made friends with this little cute girl’s mom and grandmother. Nathelie, the cutie pie who could sing and dance like a pro is also one of the top 20 winners. She’s been competing locally and internationally since she was 6 years old and she’s such a natural talent and charmer! Her grandma (in dark glasses) is in her 70s and such a hot grandma. Both she and her daughter (Nathelie’s mom) took good care of Sherilyn when I hadn’t arrived at the studio yet. Nathelie’s mom helped me to record Sherilyn’s performance projected on the screen while I went backstage to watch and video record. They’re truly guardian angels!

Next year will be a ‘gap year’ for Sherilyn, a year where she will stop competing to concentrate in her studies as it’s her PT3 exam year. She will start competing again the following year when she’s 16. Hopefully we’ll meet Nathelie and her mom and grandmother again in one of those competitions in future.

No. of times viewed = 68

Dancing Queen

So my dancing queen resumed her contemporary dance classes on Tuesday at another dance studio on Tuesday. This studio is not new to her but the dance instructor is. Sherilyn used to attend ballet classes at this dance studio when she was 4 – 7 years old.

On the same night of her first dancing class, she received an email from Asia Junior Got Talent, informing her that her dance audition video submission has been approved by the judges! And the finalists will be competing on 1 December 2019!

Two weeks ago, just before I sent her to school, Sherilyn got me to shoot a bunch of videos of her dancing. The videos are for online audition entries for a couple of dance competitions. We spent over an hour at the function room of our condo shooting over 10 times until I felt dizzy! Dizzy cos this girl is such a perfectionist and she was instructing me how to aim the phone and I was running around in the room, trying to catch her at the best angle. As she was flipping and twirling around really quickly, I had to keep up on my pace. One moment she was complaining that my sandals were making annoying sounds (can be heard in the videos) and the next moment she was saying that I didn’t know how to shoot at the optimal angle, thus wanted another take. I got so frustrated that I wanted to walk out of the room.🙄

So for the next 2 weeks, my dancing queen will be busy again, choreographing and rehearsing for the Asia Junior Got Talent finals. Guess this will be her last competition for this year and next year. Her competitions will resume after her PT3 exam next September.

No. of times viewed = 35

Get The Beat World Tour 2019

Our dancing queen’s haul in the Get The Beat (GTB) Asia dance competition held on Sunday, 25 August 2019 was champion, 2nd and 5th placing in the student’s choreography, jazz and solo contemporary (under 14 category).

With this, she’s now qualified for the world finals to be held in Bangkok from 18 – 22 December 2019. But her dad and I don’t think that she’ll be going as we want her to focus in her studies. Lately she’s been spending too much time partaking in all sorts of competitions and dancing. We’re extremely proud of her prowess and burning passion in dancing but we feel that studies should be above dancing.

Even the day before the competition, Sherilyn had to be in school at 7 a.m. to perform in a Chinese cultural dance in a Merdeka Day celebration. She’s spent every night practising at the gym till 10 p.m. for the GTB competition and during the weekends and holidays, her team mates from school came over to practise the Chinese dance.

Would you believe it if I told you that our dancing queen choreographed for her school’s Chinese cultural dance? Sherilyn stopped going to the dance studio for lessons several months ago as I think she needs a dance teacher who can teach her more advanced techniques and help her to raise her game.

Enjoy the photos…

My dancing queen has definitely come a long way from a 3+ year old chubby cheeked girl who started attending ballet classes to a determined 14-year old who choreographs her own dance ❤️

Sherilyn and Alycia in January 2009.

Backstage after the first event…

No. of times viewed = 76

Berjaya Teen Star Challenge 2019

My dancing queen registered herself in the Berjaya Teen Star Challenge 2018 audition last year and ‘recruited’ 2 of her classmates to be in her dance team. She choreographed the dance herself. During the audition, one of her friends forgot the steps – they didn’t make it. Sherilyn vowed to try again the following year, though her dad and I didn’t fully encourage her to.

This year, again she registered herself in the 2019 audition, representing her school. I’ve been telling her that it’s a waste of her time participating in so many dance competitions and she should instead be spending more time on her studies. With only 2 weeks to go before the audition, she trained with D in school almost everyday. D came to our condo during the weekends to practise at our condo gym.

The audition was held last Saturday. The two girls took Grab to Berjaya Time Square, with D’s mother tagging along. They audition went pretty well but the judges weren’t too satisfied with D’s steps. Can’t blame D as she only had 2 weeks of practice. Moreover, D does not have much experience in modern dance. She’s a cultural dancer in school but it’s pretty different from modern dance.

The judge told Sherilyn in private that she had two choices:
1. to find another partner OR
2. her partner has to work on the flaws and to come back the next day (Sunday) for the final audition.

When they returned from the audition, they continued practising and perfecting the steps. With only a few more hours to go before the next audition, there was not much that they could do but to try and hope for the best. Sherilyn who choreographed the dance had to change some of the steps at the eleventh hour.

Sherilyn didn’t even tell me that she and her partner got through the second audition to emerge top 40 in Malaysia (modern dance category) to compete in the Berjaya Teen Star Challenge until I Whatsapped her while she was still at the audition venue!

Sherilyn should have named her team The Dimple Girls instead as both she and her friend have the sweetest and deepest dimples on both sides of their cheeks!

After Hari Raya, all the contestants who got through the audition have to attend a workshop at Colmar Tropicale, Berjaya Hills @ Bukit Tinggi for a short training session on how to perfect their showmanship before the prelims to be held in three months.

When it comes to things that interest her like dancing, martial arts, athletics and baking, Sherilyn’s discipline and focus are impeccable. This fearless girl loves participating in competitions too. She woke up very early on her own on both days to get ready – prepped her own breakfast, did her makeup and hair herself and ordered Grab herself. She’s naturally a born leader, in areas that pique her passion, which are all right-brain dominated!

No. of times viewed = 49