Crystal's Adventures through Performing Arts

Been working on a few Chinese Paintings :)  Expressing my imagination through art while exploring my inner world. Note: the English and Mandarin Names don't necessarily match up 錯綜交雜 (Intertwined) 齊心向上 (Together) 我的第一幅水墨畫 (My First Chinese Painting) 生意盎然 (Flourish) Painting of the tree outside our classroom: Sketch of the tree from above: 童趣 (Childhood) Modern interpretation of Chinese Painting: using Chinese painting to illustrate dolls and stuffed animals.

I painted these two pieces for my mom as her birthday card, and then I taught her some Chinese painting techniques <3 :) (I cut out the written part of the card, so that's why there's an awkward-looking bamboo shoot/branch next to the rock) I'm a leftie, BUT I compose Chinese calligraphy with my right hand. Why? Because Chinese character strokes go from left to right, so the brush would crumple up if I use my left hand. Story time:  I once enrolled in a Chinese calligraphy class, and the teacher told me to either switch to my right hand or switch to another course... Thus, I switched to my right hand and attempted to trace Chinese characters like the other students. Weeks passed by and everyone progressed from tracing simple characters to outlining complicated ones: the teacher even signed his name on their practice pieces to show their perfection of the characters (our teacher claimed he was famous and that his signatures were valuable) Yet, I conti...

Now that club fair is over, I want to take a moment to thank my dance family <3 The most exciting part of every performance is the training. Yes, it is tiring, but we are always so spirited. Like a large family, we share our successes and failures and happiness and sadness. It's truly touching to see some of the younger members become better dancers and more open people in general under our guidance. Even those who shied away from us in the beginning would engage in our dance discussions and backstage banters (do you like my alliteration there?) Truth be told, the onstage performances may be ephemeral ( 3~4 minutes) but what lasts forever is our friendship. Sometimes we'd have a pizza party or two to celebrate our successes BEFORE the real performance to acknowledge the time and effort we put into perfecting the choreography. What we acknowledge is not our result, but the blood sweat tears AND LAUGHTER put into a dance. I remember once we all sat in a circle and shared our...

HEY GUYS! Club Fair is coming up and this is our club fair video! (Club fair is a day when the student body signs up for clubs they are interested in) JOIN KEY CLUB! Our theme this year is SUPERHEROES (because I just finished watching Spiderman and Wonderwoman last month) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Y6NgB-aaM By the way, I'm Wonderwoman in this video (yes, because I just watched the Wonderwoman Movie)

Every year, the juniors are required to perform for the graduating seniors. HOWEVER, this year we all signed up a bit TOO WILLINGLY. Hobo Magic started off the performance (YAY THE SCHOOL SPIRIT TEAM), then we had the other dance performances in between, and finally a group dance as the ending. This was honestly the most exciting performance throughout the year because we got to work together as the entire grade (apart from people who went to take the ACTs on that day). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35MAIvkhczs Audio Editor: Crystal Chen Dance coordinators for the Final Group Performance: Crystal Chen, Julia, Stephanie Performers: Entire Grade

Hey guys :) This is our CBC+D.CO video for Graduation ceremony :) This is our SECOND time collaborating with our school's circuit breaking club because we had so much fun last time working together as a TEAM! AND it's our first time as D.Co OFFICERS coordinating this entire performance :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDUWcd5Ik6A&t=249s ENJOY! PS: we have a lot of new members so we got to know younger graders much more too :)

HERRO! This is our Charity Night OFFICERS performance!! If you don't know, our school's Charity Night is hosted by Key Club and Interact. As officers, we perform an entertaining choreography for the audience as a pre-intermission performance. PS: I'm the one in the White hat :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h76-sl7J-vw&index=10&list=PLYhYDtgCrD3yOCVMU_N-kkn3dZlc-oQiv Hope you like it! :) 

DO YOU SEE THE OUTFIT DIVERSITY? Well, we're trying to stray away from black and white from now on because colour makes everything SO MUCH MORE vibrant and exciting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UuRc-k477Q This is our School Anniversary performance, and I'm quite proud of our D.Co Family as a whole because of how much time, effort, and teamwork we put into making this performance a success :) Good Job D.CO babies! <3

HERYYO, This is our second HOBO MAGIC dance performance (this time it's for Raise Your Voice). Gosh, I finished learning Single Ladies right before the performance because I was also performing for our CBC+D.CO performance >.< BUT we had so much fun practicing for the other songs hehe :)  (don't worry, I learned the other songs beforehand already) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPcLGVOh8FY&index=21&list=PLYhYDtgCrD3yw4NDgNussmC-b3tCSr_ei

HERRO BEAUTIFUL VIEWERS! Here's the short clip of our trip to the train station. We passed out sandwiches and drinks we bought from a nearby convenience store! It was actually one of the most touching and rewarding trips I've been to. The first man we talked to told us his story of how the 9/21 earthquake destroyed his home and he was forced to move to the park bench. The other man (2:47) also moved us. He was sleeping on a park bench when we placed the bag of food down along with a heartfelt note. After walking around the block, we saw him again. This time, he woke up and was eating his sandwich. From the side, it felt like our little actions helped made a difference in his life. If everyone could contribute a little with a few small actions, our world could be much more beautiful and peaceful and loving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y1rE5jxktw Editor: Crystal Chen Filmers: Crystal Chen, Karen, Katelyn Participants: Jubilee Project Members

HELLO Y'ALL, This is our Christmas Concert performance (it was entered into a competition). The performance starts at 2:28 (yes, it starts before that, but our idea was to stick glow sticks onto our jackets and perform in the dark. However, it looked really weird in the end. I guess trial and error. Sometimes you fail sometimes you succeed XD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNH5_gCHoyY&index=14&list=PLYhYDtgCrD3xz2vmiXTp08Z-HeawZNMrt&t=148 PS: I run up to the stage afterwards because I was in charge of hyping up the audience and having them clap to the beats. The people in front of the stage are audience members that were supposed to 'kind-of' know the moves so it looks spontaneous XD Also, I have no idea why we're called the Shadow Cattle. Someone in the group probably came up with it 😅