Malam Festival Seni & Anugerah Dekan 2011

Approximately two weeks back, I was cordially invited by the Department of Environmental Health (EH) to join their big event of the year; Festival Night and Dean's Award 2011. In short, it was actually a night to show their appreciation for the top scorers (CGPA > 3.7)  from every batches and also to gather all of them together for this big event.

Malam Festival Seni & Anugerah Dekan 2011 (Jabatan Kesihatan Persekitaran)
Venue: MAHSA Auditorium (JUC Campus)
Date: 14th December 2011
Time: 8pm - 11pm
Dress Code: Traditional Clothing

This event is organized by their Student Representative Committee 2010/11. 

The stage is decorated with gongs and other traditional musical instruments. 

At 8pm sharp, we welcomed the arrival of Guest of Honour, Mr. Haw Ai Beng. 

and Tuan Hj Ibrahim from the EH Department. 

Kickstart the event by a silat performance by two of their students (: 

Saw some action in between until one of them is brought down, just like any typical silat performance.

Followed by a welcoming speech by Puan Siti Nurhidayah  Bt. Rostam, the Advisor of the Student Representative Committee of EH Department.

Opening Speech by Mr Haw Ai Beng, the Head of Department (HOD) of EH Department.

And thus he officiated the Festival Night and Dean's Award for Year 2011 and to dissolve the Representative Student Committee 2010/11. 

Heartiest congratulation to those who received the Dean's Award, keep up the good work! :D

There was also 3 slots of lucky draw in between, too bad I'm not lucky enough that night. 

Here comes the highlight of the night that everyone has been waiting for, even myself. The festival night performances now begins!

#1. Indian Stick Dance (Dandiya Raas)

The beat of the songs were catchy and the dancers were really energetic, I bet everyone felt pumped up after the performance by the applause the audience gave (Y) 

#2. The Orang Ulu Traditional Dance

Orang Ulu is an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in Sarawak. It looks a tad similar to Ngajat (Iban Traditional Dance) to me, correct me if I'm wrong. The props they used are actually handmade, I can tell it's not easy.

#3. Instrumental Performance 

They played a number of old songs using their guitars, the only song I recognized was Bunyi Guitar by P.Ramlee. 

#4. Chinese Fan Dance

Graceful and sweet. Some of them aren't even Chinese but they can dance our chinese dance so well! Besides lion dance, this is the only Chinese dance I know. Is there any other Chinese dance? #failedchinese

#5. Folk Song

I can't find any better translation other than Folk Song -_- So what made this nyanyian lagu rakyat so interesting is that this creative quadruplet made a medley out of a few folk songs such as Rasa Sayang, Jambatan Tamparuli, Lenggang Kangkung & Tinggi tinggi Gunung. 


TINGGI TINGGI GUNUNG KINABALU
TINGGI LAGI SAYANG SAMA KAMU
BIRU BIRU HUJUNG KINABALU
TENGOK DARI JAUH HATI SAYA RINDU
— Tinggi Tinggi Gunung

#6. Nyanyian Lagu Irama Malaysia

Another fantastic show from another quartet, they have really great voice (: 

#7. Tarian Zapin

When you have Chinese and Indian dance, how can you not have Malay Traditional Dance? Tarian Zapin is one of them. I'm really amazed by how coordinated and entertaining their dance is despite of the large number of people dancing together. 

#8. Sketch

It was a blend of a comedy sketch with moral values. It was enlightening and tickling my funny bone at the same time. I think those students can be actors as well as their part time job perhaps? :P 

#9. Sabah & Sarawak Traditional Ethnic Dance

This dance is definitely something new for me but I still enjoy it thoroughly (: 

#10. Traditional Clothing Fashion Show (Peragaan Busana Tradisional)

The MCs of the night; they are humourous, especially the guy MC and they never fail to interact with the audiences. Kudos to them for such an interesting night. 

They portrayed different costumes from different ethnics and races such as Orang Ulu, Bidayuh, Kadazan, Orang Iban, Chinese, Malay and Indian as well. They are even asked to posed several times :P With this fashion show, the event has finally come to an end.

All in all, I'm really impressed with all of their performances, never knew that there are so many talented yet bright student from the EH Department. I was blown away and I truly enjoyed myself the whole night. Most of them are originates from East Malaysia, thus explains the variety of cultural performances they managed to pull off, especially more on the culture of Sabah and Sarawak. It is really an eye opener as well to the West Malaysians student as many of them are not aware of our East Malaysian's culture. Frankly speaking, I'm so proud to be a Sarawakian knowing that my state is rich with different cultures and ethnics. I really hope this will be an annual event in the future or maybe an event that involves the whole Uni instead of only EH Department to let everyone especially the international student to know more about the various cultures in Malaysia. 

Some group shots at the end of the event;  

The big family photo of the EH Department☺ 

The Student Representative Committee 2010/11 who had work hard day and night and put in a lot of effort to make this event a successful one. Double thumbs up for them! 

Another group photo of the comittee members and all those who are involved in the performances with their beloved HOD. Say cheese!! 

Even though I'm not from their department, they never treat me as an outsider (:
Friendly people I must say.  

If I have the chance, I would love to try on their outfit one day! 

Ending this post with me in a Kebaya (: Thanks to the EH Department for such an amazing night! 

Looking forward for more events like this in the Uni. #MAHSABOLEH!
Salam 1Msia, Salam 1EH \(￣︶￣)/
xx