Finale Performances In Chingay Parade 2008

Featured below is the finale act which is a visually stunning ender to the Chingay Parade 2008 event in City Hall, Singapore.

This is the huge intricate “Celestial Web” float created by Tan Swie Hian. Hundreds of lights illuminated the float as masked dancers strutted inside the float and around 150 dancers (Malays, Indians, and Chinese) performed a special dance choreography around the float.

During the frenzy of the finale performance, Mr. Tan himself was elevated above the ground as he painted masterfully an artwork on a drawing board within 5 minutes or less.

There’s a lone dancer dressed in blue fit costume twisting and stretching on top of the gigantic float as two rows of ballerina dancers in red and blue colored gowns synchronously pirouetted below.

A grand display of fireworks followed at the end of the finale, with powerful torch lights beaming towards the night sky.

Everyone applauded after the final show. Confetti’s were released and showered both spectators and performers below. The people started to converge towards the stage to greet and congratulate the officials and organizers of the successful parade.

Here’s a short video clip of the grand finale performance. Watch closely at the magnificently twirling red and blue clad dancers at the start of the video.

Tags: celestial web, Fireworks, parade float, videoblogging

08.Mar.08 Chinese New Year, Chingay Parade, Photo Series, Videos Comments (2)

A Barbaric Series Of Pictures

One of the highlights of the recently held Chingay Parade 2008 is the dramatic and chaotic battle scene between barbarians in black and gold costumes and knights in gold and silver armor costumes defending a lone castle float in the middle of the street. I could not find this act listed in the brochure containing the order of shows and performances in the entire parade. Yet, everybody seemed to enjoy it. Some teenage girls were suddenly frightened when a few of these barbarian actors suddenly approached them at the railings and roared at them without warning.

The act started with a bunch of these barbarians in horned helmets and black armor pushing their wooden weapon contraption (somewhat a cross between a giant crossbow and a catapult). Next came in the white castle float with females, children, and knights guarding the walled parapet walk, baileys, and the keep of the fortress. Castle knights came in next as they surrounded the castle. Suddenly, barbarians entered the scene and swarmed at the gate and sides of the castle. The barbarians had planned to take over the lone fortress. A furious battle ensued between the knights and the barbarians.

Here’s a short video of the battle, with the knights winning the war.

I had my second opportunity to snap pictures up close of the barbarian and knight actors after the Chingay Parade. I left the premises of the City Hall area and moved to the Esplanade Park area (near the River Hongbao). Good thing that the parade at this place has not yet officially ended and a lot of the performances are still being shown to the free standing crowd. I was lucky again to encounter the barbarian and knight performers gleefully shouting at each other and at the onlookers around. They playfully waved their prop swords as they trudged along towards Stamford road.

Above is one of the knights roaring in delight as they relished their victory over the barbarians who attempted to takeover their kingdom fortress.

Next post will feature the final performances of the parade.

Tags: barbarians, battle scene, knights, videoblogging

03.Mar.08 Chinese New Year, Chingay Parade, Photo Series, Videos Comments (2)

Short Videos Of Chingay Parade 2008

We take a break at posting pictures by presenting some short video clips of performances during the Chingay Parade 2008 held at City Hall.

First video presents the countdown to the official opening of the Chingay Parade of Dreams 2008. Warning: some loud firecracker explosions here, so I suggest to turn down the volume of your speakers if you’re not used to extreme levels of noise. Otherwise, pump up the volume there.

Next video shows the marching in of Darth Vader’s Stormtroopers as part of the introduction of performers for the night.

Next video showcases the exciting sprinting of a black Formula One car, turning 180 degrees and screeching in to the delight of the spectators.

This one presents the entrance of Harley Davidson motorcycles, sports cars, and vintage cars as part of the prelude show to the Chingay Parade 2008.

Next video showcases the the Singapore SOKA Association as they perform their ocean themed dance routine

Finally, this video shows the various vibrant youths of the Community Development Councils consisting of PA Talents, CDC Cheerleaders, P Talent dancers and SE CDC Y2K performers doing a Hip Hop dance routine.

For the curious ones, I was actually carrying two cameras with me, one my Canon Powershot S3IS which I used primarily in taking these videos and the other my Canon DSLR 400D used mainly for snapping pictures.

All of the videos here are uploaded in Yahoo video. Before I was uploading video files in Youtube. I was disappointed lately though with the very slow response time of Youtube in uploading movie files (as if the website hangs in with no response for about 30 minutes to more than an hour without showing at least a percentage of actually loading the file at all).

Youtube, you better start sprucing up your servers (like adding more CPU memory I guess)!

Tags: cars, countdown, dance, F1 racer, Firecrackers, hip hop, Star Wars, videoblogging

27.Feb.08 Chinese New Year, Chingay Parade, Videos Comments (2)