Articles

Philip Sobrielo's Workshop in Kuching, Malaysia

by Yeo Yu Puay (21 Jul 2010)

Karar Line Dancing had the pleasure of hosting Sobrielo Philip Gene to a workshop in Kuching, Malaysia, recently on 26th June 2010. The workshop was attended by over one hundred people ranging from the ages of eight to the sixties, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. A group of dancers even flew in from Kota Kinabalu (Sabah, Malaysia) and one all the way from Perth, Australia.

Karar Line Dancing had the pleasure of hosting Sobrielo Philip Gene to a workshop in Kuching, Malaysia, recently. The workshop was attended by over one hundred people ranging from the ages of eight to the sixties, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. A group of dancers even flew in from Kota Kinabalu (Sabah, Malaysia) and one all the way from Perth, Australia.

At the workshop, five dances, both old and new, were taught (all choreographed by Philip, with a couple that were written in collaboration with other choreographers):

Apart from these dances, Philip also did a MUSIC INTERPRETATION workshop on styling for country, latin, pop and hip hop rhythms. What had the crowd roaring with laughter was when he touched on dance floor etiquettes and asked them to undo the laces of one shoe in order to teach them how to dance without tripping over them - a few people who were not paying attention were going round telling the others that their shoe-laces were undone! :)

There were a lot of first timers to workshops and most enjoyed themselves tremendously and are asking when there will be another one! They all related very well to Philip who was very approachable and taught with great patience, passion and panache. He was a fantastic teacher who was able to come down to the level of the workshop attendees and broke the more complicated things down to make them simple and non-threatening. He had really good class-control and was able to keep the group's attention at all times - not an easy task when you have a group some 80 or more ladies to deal with!!!!

Philip also demonstrated some of his other dances during the breaks - 1 2 Step, Come On Over Baby, Bust The Move (choreographed with Jo and John Kinser), Strong Enough, On The Line, Belly Dancers, Spice it Up, Run The Show, Baby Boy (choreographed with John Ng), Crazy Frog and MJ Come Together - a lot of which were very interesting and are definitely worth looking into! Some of these demos will be up on YouTube soon.

The day ended with a dinner and dance party themed Black & White at a Chinese restaurant, The Banquet. Philip did a couple of performances with the Karar Line Dancers - first a medley of line dances (mostly his own choreography) and then an MJ Performance. He came in a few days earlier to work with the local dancers in putting the acts together. He encouraged, he cajoled, he challenged and he inspired the dancers to give the best that they could. (Hey! He even got us to dance in heels - and THAT is something! How? Well, HE borrowed a pair of heels to dance with us and we ladies did not want to lose out to a guy now, did we??!!) Both performances were very well-received by the audience. Check them out:

MJ Performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBuPJjN0yfM

Line Dance Medley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4pEs6Pd_IY

Working with Philip Sobrielo was very interesting and humbling. He gave 110% to make the event a success - asking for nothing extra in return. He did not have to put up the performances in the evening but he did because it was something he loved doing and he wanted to see everything turn out well. And indeed, it did! The workshop here in Kuching showed us that he is not just a hip hop dancer and choreographer, but pretty much an all-rounder. This young man, with his unassuming attitude, is going places…..