Chong Lim - Blog

With the music each, what happens is we work together with the dancers
to decide what songs they want, they got to like what they are doing,
so in general they decide, and they let us know and we go, oh yeah
that's really nice and that's an exciting piece for the show.

Sometimes, depending on the dancers we make suggestions, as some
dancers are more assertive than others, some are more sure of what
they want than others, and some dancers are more open to suggestions,
so it depends on the couple we have. I have from time to time made
suggestions to them but you know I'm not really going to give them
suggestions that probably get them in trouble. I remember one year, I
did suggest the Foo Fighters track to Alicia Molik and she left
dancing to that, so it was a little bit controversial. With song
choice, it's more about us saying we like the song rather than we tell
them what to do, they always choose the song but we do have to work
together to edit it down, we don't do a five minute song, we do about
a minute and half, so we work together to make sure we make that the
edit interesting and something people can enjoy.

So that takes a little bit of time and then we have to go through this
decision of speed which is always a controversial issue with the
judges, of course there are a lot of nervousness about dancing with
the right tempo, but again the dancers decide what speed they want, we
agree on a tempo and I make sure I give them what they need.

Sometimes they come to rehearsals and go oh can we have it faster or
slower and then we change the speed accordingly and obviously
sometimes the celebrity dancers might not able to cope with the tempo,
or sometimes they have improved so much that the professional dancers
feel that they can speed it up for them.

So each week, I have to rehearse the band first. There is a regular
band; including six brass, two singers, two guitars, one on drums, one
percussion, one bass, and myself, so there is a basic of fourteen
people always and then there are strings, the strings vary from six to
eight people, depending on the night, sometimes we have French horn
also, this week we are going to have French horns and tubas because
there are some big numbers.

We rehearse the songs on a Monday, and then we put it down on a CD for
them to do a quick rehearsal with the music on Mondays, and really for
the dancers the only chance to rehearse with the band is on Tuesday
afternoons when we do a show run. They have two runs with the band and
really that's about it; live shows they go by pretty quickly. We just
get the rehearsal time, but we are professionals, so we are ready for
the situation, I've got a good band of great musicians.

I do watch them dance during rehearsals, I have to make sure it all
fits, and sometimes they come and go, I need a change something or add
this bit, so there are a lot of interaction involved to get it right
within the short time they have. We aim to please; we try to make sure
that the dancers are as comfortable as they can be when they are
performing, so they don't have to think about it, all they have to
really worry about is their performance.

This week we all really loved Luda's track, Bombon De Azucar, the band
sang along and it was a really blistering Latin track and they did a
fantastic routine to it, not that I watch a lot of it when I play
because I have to concentrate on what I'm doing, but the bits I saw
from the corner of my eyes were good. All of the Foxtrot music, Frank
Sinatra's Blue Moon and Witchcraft, are always fantastic to play; it's
so nice and romantic, and of course La Bamba for Patti is a favourite,
I love every song that we played this week. I love the Latin numbers,
they are a bit challenging to play, but once you get it together, it
really suits having brass, it's always very exciting when we have to
do Salsa, it's a highlight for me.

I think Corinne was really good, to be honest, I was a little bit
shocked and disappointed that she left, I love all her little video
packages, she is very funny, and she is a really nice girl. You get
disappointed every week when someone goes, it's the nature of the
beast, but I was kind of surprised that she went so early, to me she
had a lot of potential, but I'm only a musician.

Next week, Delta will be on the show. We are all excited that she is
coming on, we love her music and we are looking forward to it, it will
be a great night and it's a big song. Also, there are some really big
songs for the dancers, including a classical piece, so we will have an
orchestra, and a choir for certain tracks, so it's a big show this
coming Tuesday, we are all very excited, it will be one of the biggest
shows for the series.

Chong Lim