A small team of 8 young dancers from the KC Dance Studio travelled to Bangkok on 25th September 2012 to compete in the Channel 3 television series called ‘Took Jai Hai Leui’, which roughly translated means, ‘I will vote for you if you kick my heart’, for national prestige and a prize of 20,000 baht.
Early in Wednesday morning the 25th September, at 3 a.m., we woke up to the alarm pinging and got ready to drive to the KC Dance Studio in Duck Square. It was pitch black outside and squalling with heavy rainfalls. Our two girls, Katie and Rita ran for the car and we headed off for an unknown day ahead of us.
KC dancers perform their routine for the judges and the audience.
At the KC Dance Studio, some make up was applied, to speed things up after we arrived, as the recording was supposed to start at 8.30 a.m.
The whole team of eight dancers, Rita, Katie, Suli and Daisy (young girls); Rita senior and Beech (older girls); and Big and Jong (older boys) left Duck Square with parents and instructors at 4.30 a.m., driving in a convoy and very heavy rain to Bangkok.
The team had practiced for around a month every day after school, and was able now to perform the dance routine in their sleep. The four young girls in our car were asleep most of the way there, which was lucky as the convoy broke up in Samut Prakan and we got lost! After an hour of circling on the expressways and phone calls, we hired a taxi to lead us to the Channel 3 studios. This was a good thing because the studio was about an hour’s drive the other side of the Chao Phraya River, which felt like driving to Burma at that time. We arrived after five hours of driving in pouring rain, at 11.30 a.m. somewhat exhausted and some girls had been travel sick.
Famous Thai actors Taep Po Ngam, Janet Keow, and Somjit Jong Jorhor judge the acts.
The team all got together in our allotted changing room, which we shared with other competitors, and we quickly started the full make up and dressing routine that is so familiar to all the students. Lunch was snacks that we had brought with us, and very soon we were into the real studio with cameras and action.
There were producers and directors, the main man, the TV show host called Pong, along with cameramen, light men, floor men and gantry guys way up high above working backdrops, plus helpers and assistants and about one hundred people in the audience on staged seats all around the dance floor. There were three judges of the shows for the day, Taep Po Ngam, Janet Keow, Somjit Jong Jorhor who are all famous Thai actors.
KC dancers celebrate their much deserved win.
The KC Dance team performed their dance many times for the cameras and eventually were told that it was enough, which was a great relief and everyone went backstage to eat and drink. The show then had to wrap up the day and announce a winner, so the audience and judges were asked to vote on all the acts. All the acts were called back onto the stage and we listened while the results of the voting were read out by the show host, Pong.
KC Dance Studio won by a large margin getting 93.7% marks awarded for their dance performance! At last a great win for the Pattaya team!
The stage and audience erupted into applause and a shower of glitter fell from above onto all our dancers. The award of a large gold ‘thumbs up’ was made to the team and the camera men rushed about the stage getting shots of all the merrymaking. Great TV.
Our team was very tired but ecstatic at winning. The show ended here, the TV cameras stopped rolling, they had all the shots they needed, and we were left in peace to change and get in the cars to go home. But not before the winnings money was shared out, which cheered every one up! We drove back thanks to GPS and it only took two hours, so we arrived home at 9.30 p.m., all the kids asleep and sweet dreams too.
All our thanks go to Poo Chai the owner and director of KC Dance Studio in Duck Square, whose tireless and sympathetic work with the children enabled all of this to happen; he is a great person and a very skilled teacher.
KC Dance Studio in Duck Square is sponsored by Black Star Jewellery and Bistros.
