YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE THAT GROOVE

Abstract

A young Pat Ibrahim sat at an audition for a place at the Aswara (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan) in 1994 surrounded by traditional Malay dancers while he, in his head, had planned to perform a Paula Abdul routine. "They asked me, are you not going to do a zapin for us? And I said I don't know how, and they said to me, how can you not know, you are Malay? To which I replied, in Malay — it was because I did not know that I wanted to come to the school, la kan?" Pat told us.