Zoe Tay challenges self with intense dance routine for President’s Star Charity 2016

For this year’s show, Zoe will be challenging herself with an intense dance performance, where she will depict the graceful peacock’s life, together with a troupe of dancers from Dance Ensemble Singapore Dancers.

However, rehearsals proved to be a handful, right from the very first session.

“My hands started cramping after the first day of lessons,” Zoe shared. “I have to arch my fingers and wrist to form a peacock’s head [for the dance], and my wrist started hurting in the middle of rehearsal.”

While Zoe remained vague on the exact moves and dance that she’ll be performing on the day itself, she did reveal that the dancers will be lifting her up during the performance, with a couple of acrobatic moves thrown in the fray as well.

“I have to look very graceful and glamorous during the performance, so I’m a little worried about it. Luckily, though, the dancers will help me out by telling me the next move during the dance,” she laughed.

Zoe, who celebrated her wedding anniversary recently, also shed some light on her now-deleted selfie with her husband, Philip Chionh, which she originally posted on Instagram.

“I originally posted a picture of our hands together, but I thought that it didn’t look very nice, so I replaced it with an old picture of us. Later, I added some filters and frames to the original picture of our hands, and found that it looked a lot nicer. So, I deleted our selfie, and replaced it with the re-edited picture instead.”

The 48-year-old, who usually keeps her private life under wraps, also shared that her husband does not keep tabs on her social media posts, as she usually posts in Mandarin.

“Sometimes, I’ll read out the captions for him though!” she laughed.

“Dancing is the biggest challenge for me,” Ping Hui declared, rating his dance skills a mere 1.5 out of 10.

However, the 45-year-old, who recently returned from filming upcoming Chinese blockbuster drama The Legend of The Condor Heroes in China and who has been dabbling in a fair bit of English-based drama series recently, shared that he will not shy away from trying new things, even declaring that he’d “wouldn’t mind filming a Suria or Vasantham drama next”.

“The most important thing [to me] is to [always] try new things, as it’s more fun and interesting. I’ll also get to grow more [as an actor],” he shared.

The actor, who sported a trendy white crop cut at the press conference, also let in that his new hair colour was 100% natural.

“I’ve always dyed my hair black, but I left it alone while filming in china, as I had to wear a wig for the drama. When I returned, I received loads of compliments on my new hair colour, so I decided to leave it as it is.”

Local actress Rebecca Lim will be spared from dancing this time round, with a special piano performance and opening song in store for her.

The actress, who turned 30 recently, confessed that her dancing is “really bad”, and that she had once danced for a Channel 8 and Channel 5 charity show, but “it was my first and last time” dancing for both shows.

Rebecca let on that that she has been practising her piano performance on an air piano whenever she has the time, and that she used to play the instrument as well, though it has been “quite a while” since she last touched a piano.

Local actor James Seah, who will be part of the All-Star Choir, also divulged that he had attended one group rehearsal so far, with Rebecca commending his singing.

“I’ve heard him sing before in the karaoke, [his singing’s] not bad,” she said with a laugh.

This will be the first time the duo will be participating in a performance together, with Sonia and Kimberly both expressing their excitement and worry for the performance.

Sonia, who has taken part in the charity show for three years, shared that she actually used to be in the Chinese Orchestra back in school, with Kimberly adding that the 24-year-old, who used to play the guzheng, was even the vice-president of the orchestra.

Meanwhile, Kimberly, who recently revealed her relationship with local actor Shane Pow, shared that nothing much has changed in their relationship after the big reveal.

“The comments from Shane’s fans have been quite encouraging so far, and some of them even ask us to post more pictures together,” she shared.

The local singer, who recently tied the knot, had nothing but praises to sing of life as a married man.

“Wait till the second year though, and I’ll get back to you [if there’s anything that I can’t get used to],” he quipped.

Sezari also let on that this will be the first time he’s singing his own song, ‘Fire on the Floor’, on the show.

Enlai cheekily dubbed their pairing "the first time the news will meet The Noose", as Glenda is a news presenter.