Contributed by Ms Valerie Goh, Assistant Manager, Chief Revenue Officer’s Office, CDL.

Themed ‘Shanghai Night’, the recent CDL Gala Dinner 2020 kicked off with a riveting performance put up by 14 staff from Asset Management, CDL China, the Chief Revenue Officer’s (CRO) Office and Enterprise Risk Management departments. One of the performers, Valerie, shares with Hi Life about how the group picked up the jitterbug.

For the Gala Dinner this year, CDL Staff Connect 8, the staff committee that organises the event, decided on the theme ‘Shanghai Night’. In line with the theme, they thought it would be a good opportunity for the team from CDL China to put on a performance. It was then extended to other departments, and eventually 14 of us from CDL China, CRO’s Office, Asset Management, Enterprise Risk Management and Property Development – Projects came together for this jive dance. Most of us started out with no dance background at all, but thankfully we had a good instructor!

We started out with classes from mid-November 2019, learning the basic steps. It was a struggle at the beginning, but our instructor broke down the moves into simple steps which made it easier for us. After a few lessons, dancing became more and more enjoyable!  

In addition to classes with the instructor, we also organised our own sessions to go through the choreography. We had plenty of fun during those sessions as well, because the dance has such a vibrant and playful vibe.

Through learning how to jive and putting up the performance, it brought us higher energy levels, more smiles and laughter, and strengthened our rapport with colleagues from different departments. We definitely would not mind another opportunity to showcase the jive again, or learn something new!