25 Mar 2002 - 6th Malaysia Millennium 2002 (Open) International Dancesport Championships
An Exclusive Interview with Yutaka and Kiyoko Sakata - Would you still be competing when you're in your 70s?
Yutaka and Kiyoko Sakata from Japan are well-known in the dancing circles. This veteran Japanese couple have been competing very regularly for the past 15 years. A short interview following their victory in the Standard Adult Senior Over 45 at the 6th Malaysia Millennium 2002 (Open To The World) International Dancesport Championships on the 29th March 2002 in Kuala Lumpur. more >>

Organized by Jimmy Liew School of Ballroom Dancing, there were about 150 couples from more than 20 countries who took part at the Istana Hotel. Also coincided with Jimmy Liew's 70th Birthday. Congratulations and Happy Birthday to Jimmy Liew!

25 Mar 2002 - Singapore Millennium 2002 International Open Dancesport Championships
The Singapore Millennium 2002 International Open Dancesport Championships organised by John & Josephine Dance Creative was held on 24 Mar 02 at Suntec City, Ballroom Level 2 was a resounding success! This championship stretched almost non-stop from 9.30am to 11.30pm with only half an hour break! It truly was an event of both quantity and quality. More write-up >>
View & purchase photos here >> Standard & Latin
Check results here : Standard & Latin

28 Feb 2002 - ADSA DanceSport Training Centre
The ADSA DanceSport Training Centre, located within the premises of Netball Singapore in Kallang, will open to members and guests every Wednesday evening from 7:00pm to 10:00pm for DanceSport training, commencing 6 Mar 2002 for a trial period of three months. Members and Ngee Ann Poly students need only pay S$2.00 per head, while non-members and guests will have to pay S$4.00 per head. Free flow of ADSA's official sport drink Gatorade will be provided during the training sessions.

The DanceSport Training Centre is situated at 6 Stadium Boulevard, opposite Kallang KFC and next to the Kallang Squash and Tennis Centre. All ADSA members are strongly encouraged by ADSA to make full use of the DanceSport Training Centre. Please bring along your friends and other DanceSport athletes.

21 Feb 2002 - Raffles Town Club Practice Night
For those who are going to participate in the coming 2nd BDFI Championship Cup to be held in Raffles Town Club (RTC), you have only 6 weeks left to brush up your skills. Never been to RTC before and did not want any surprises awaiting you in this venue's ballroom? Fret not for every Wednesday, RTC has a members' ballroom practice night from 7pm to 11:45pm that plays purely standard, latin and social songs. RTC members can practice there without any cover charge. For non-RTC members, you just need to grab an RTC member to bring you in but cover charge is applicable to you. Great DJ, fabulous pulsating songs being played and big venue but standard dancers please beware that the floor size is slightly smaller than the normal competition dance floor both length-wise and breath-wise by about 6 foot each. Unless mistaken, this is going to be the actual competition floor size and takes some getting used to as standard competition dancers (higher levels) often dance out of the floor and onto the carpet if not careful, especially quickstep.

19 Feb 2002 - Temporary Disruption to RpMerleon Website
There was a temporary disruption to access RpMerleon website over the weekend due to a last minute change of server (computer). RpMerleon has experienced downtimes in the past due to problematic server set up and this swapping of server will serve RpMerleon fans better. Please do not be alarmed as RpMerleon is still very much alive and kicking and will continue to serve our dancing fans regardless of the problems we faced. RpMerleon thank you for the prompt feedbacks, the concerns and the well wishes.

10 Feb 2002 - Change for Public Dancing at Dynasty
Notice of change for Public Dancing at Dynasty. Starting Saturday 16 Feb 2002, all Tuesday and Saturday evenings have been booked for private functions. The floor will re-open to the public on Friday and Sunday evenings, starting Sun 17th Feb 2002. Tea dances on Saturday afternoons are also cancelled but Sunday afternoons from 2-6pm remain. See Dynasty website for updates on this.

10 Feb 2002 - The Singapore Millennium DanceSport 2002
Check out P18 of Singapore's - The Sunday Times, 10 Feb 02 (print version only). There is a great half page cover of the coming Singapore Millennium DanceSport 2002 competition. For competitors, note that the closing date for entries is today, 10 Feb 02. For more details, check out the organiser's website. About 300 competitors from 28 countries are slated to take part in the fiesta. The championships will be held at the Ballroom, Level 2, Suntec City, on 24 Mar 02. Tickets for the day programme from 10am - 4pm are priced at S$30. Limited tickets from S$118 to S$350 are available for the evening programme from 6-11pm. For reservations and enquiries, call John & Josephine Dance Creative at 334-6230, email or check out their website.

04 Feb 2002 - RpMerleon's synergistic relationship with ADSA
Due to the great interest in ADSA related issues, RpMerleon will be entering a synergistic working relationship with ADSA by creating a dedicated section for ADSA related matters in the forums >> and Mr Ng Geng Whye/President ADSA will be personally in charge of that section. ADSA is greatly interested in hearing all your views, queries and ideas on Dancesport in Singapore and has pledged their full support. Do take this opportunity to discuss issues with President Ng and other ADSA Commitee members and do be constructive with no personal attacks. Automatic RpMerleon emails will be sent to ADSA once any post is submitted into this ADSA sub-forum, so be assured that he will read your posts.

RpMerleon strictly respects our forumers' need to be private (as per ADSA members requesting for photo privacy), anonymous and as such, your personal details (eg. email addresses etc) will never be revealed to anyone under any circumstances and certainly not to any newly appointed moderators. Forumers who wish to send personal notes to fellow forumers and ensure privacy, please utilise the Private Message facility as this will ensure annonomyousity without having to expose yourself in a proper/real email, unless you wish to reveal your true identity on the forum by disabling the 'Hide Email Address' in your personal profile and utilising your actual name as login. Alternatively, obtain a free email such as Hotmail or Yahoo which does not require your actual details or name. We hope that with your privacy ensured, you feel free to join the forum freely and constructively.

26 Jan 2002 - IDSF Recommends Additional Figures In Viennese Waltz
Realizing that it is time to update the more than a century old Viennese Waltz, the Presidium of the International DanceSport Federation, IDSF, meeting in Zurich (SUI) on January 12th & 13th, decided to recommend the introduction of additional figures in the Viennese Waltz. Read more and comment >>

24 Jan 2002 - Star of Tomorrow Photos Uploaded to iShop
The photos for Star of Tomorrow (held on 19 Jan 02) have just been uploaded into iShop for your purchase & enjoyment. Enquiries were received that competitors couldn't find their own photos when using the Quick Find Tool. Please refrain from using the Quick Find Tool in iShop as we might not know/recognise you and couldn't associate your names with your photos and gave such photos very generic names like: Standard 1, Standard 2, Latin 1, Latin 2 etc. It is better to click on Photograph under Categories follow by clicking on each of the championships and scroll down to check for your photos individually. Even better, inform us of your names with the associated photos and hey presto, your photos will have a name in no time.

23 Jan 2002 - Results of the Penang Competiton in Dec 2001
The results of the two Penang competitons held in Dec 2001 are out at the Malaysian Dancers' Association website (8th Penang International Dance Sport Championship and 2nd Malaysia International Dance Sport Championship). Singapore did quite well in the 8th Penang International Dance Sport Championship with Viking Tan & Priscilla Kwa winning the Amateur Modern Singapore / Malaysia (Closed); Leroy Loo & Alice Gan winning the Amateur Latin Singapore / Malaysia (Closed) and Peter Teo & Josephine Kwa Novice winning the Latin Singapore / Malaysia (Closed).
Comments are most welcome >>

The rest of the photos in the interview are by other photographers. We leave it to you to judge the quality of our photo compared to the rest of the other photos taken by some of the world's top dancesport photographers.

20 Jan 2002 - Star of Tomorrow
What an excellent way to start off the new year! A posh, glamorous and exciting entry level contest to groom the stars of tomorrow. The highlights of the evening were two sessions of high energy and highly innovative dancing by the World Latin Showdance Champions and Slovenia Professional Latin Champions, Sergej Milicija & Katja Klep.

Thanks to the invitation by Allan & Alice, RpMerleon editors are able to capture some fantastic shots and to bring you more write-up >>
View & purchase photos here >> Standard & Latin
Discuss this championship here >>
Check results at ADSA website.

18 Jan 2002 - Star of Tomorrow and Latin Lecture
Tomorrow (19 Jan 2002) is Allan de Dancesport's Star of Tomorrow Dancesport Championships. See you all tomorrow and best of luck to all competitors. Allan de Dancesport welcomes all dance enthusiasts to attend the lecture by the demonstrators of the Star of Tomorrow DanceSport Championship (Suntec City Ballroom - 19 Jan 02) more >>

17 Jan 2002 - ADSA matters update
ADSA will be holding its 11th Annual AGM on 3 Feb 02 at the Cedar Room, Garden Hotel at 2.30-5pm. Annual membership fees are also due. In addition, all IDSF Licensed Adjudicators and all ADSF Licensed Coaches are to pay an Adjudicator Licence fee of S$130 per annum and a Coach Licence Fee of S$120 for 2 years.

16 Jan 2002 - 2nd BDFI Singapore Ballroom Dancing Cup to be held on 6 Apr 2002
BDFI National Singapore Director, Aleena Tan has just informed RpMerleon that BDFI National Singapore will be organising its second Ballroom Dancing Cup on 6 Apr 2002 at the prestigious Raffles Town Club, the Dunearn Ballroom (825 sqm). This will be an even more grandious championship held in a centrally located venue with luxurious interiors and exquisite dinner settings. The details have not been finalised yet so either check here often or email her.

15 Jan 2002 - Closure of NZ Dances Website
Sad to see the closure of NewZealand Dances website due to non-commitment by NewZealand's own dance community. Tribute must be given to John Veitch for devoting much personal time and money establishing such a world renown dance website since 1966, same year when RpMerleon was first started. Like RpMerleon, NZ Dances have worldwide links to all major dance websites. We've also linked to each other for many years and assisted each other in promoting ballroom and dancesport throughout the world. Such waste, such pity, such similiar circumstances in Asia!

Dear Readers, RpMerleon is also an independent dance website and is funded by the webmasters themselves out of love for the dance world. To be a world class dance website, RpMerleon has to invest lots of money, time and energy, providing dance enthusiasts the latest computer technology and news update. RpMerleon has also been providing free or discounted services to individuals and dance studios for studio advertisements, event write-ups, website design/hosting, forum and photography services. We would like to appeal to all in putting reciprocal links to RpMerleon, patronise iShop, continue to engage our services and feedback on dance news. To survive, RpMerleon needs your support, otherwise we might suffer the same fate. Discuss this issue here.

14 Jan 2002 - BDFI Ballroom Dancing Cup Results Uploaded
The BDFI Singapore Ballroom Dancing Cup results are now uploaded here. As BDFI does not have a website yet, the BDFI committee has requested that the results be uploaded onto Sunny Low Dance Studio website. You will be able to check out all final positions in all the events held on 15 December 2001.

08 Jan 2002 - Latin Photos Uploaded into iShop - BDFI Ballroom Dancing Cup - 15 December 2001
The Latin photos of BDFI Ballroom Dancing Cup 2001 have now been uploaded into iShop. You can either order on-line through iShop or approach us in person and fill-in an order form (for customers in Singapore only). Just a quick reminder: orders will only be shipped or ready for self-collection upon receiving full payment first. Due to the high cost in digital production, all orders without upfront payment have no priority and will not be entertained.

You can now pay for all on-line order by credit cards. Just click on the Pay Pal logo under the currencies header, sign up as Pay Pal member and activate payment to ishop@rpmerleon.com.

BDFI has approached RpMerleon to design & upload the result page. As BDFI committee has misplaced the digital soft copy of the events, competitors' names & number tags, RpMerleon will have to re-type everything from scratch which is quite time consumming. Target date of uploading is next Monday, 14 Jan 2002. Do look out for it.

07 Jan 2002 - Standard Photos Uploaded into iShop - BDFI Ballroom Dancing Cup - 15 December 2001
RpMerleon has received several requests via phone & chit-chats that they are anxious to order their photos through iShop. Well, we're pleased to announce that the standard photos of BDFI Ballroom Dancing Cup have been uploaded to iShop as of now. Due to the numerous festive occassions during this period, the uploading was delayed. Look out for the latin photos which are expected to be uploaded latest by tomorrow.