Chinese Lion Dance

[wushu chik]

I just wanted to tell everyone that Daniel Leung and his lion dance team came up and did a BEAUTIFUL lion dance in Medford, Oregon today. It was AWESOME!!!! How many of the kwoons that everyone goes to do lion dancing (competition or traditional)?? I am wondering because it's beginning to be a big thing now.

I am ALWAYS Kung Fu Fighting.....what about you?

[SaekSan]

It's really great to see the surge in interest on this artform. Anyone other lion dancers around?

[Jaguar Wong]

I used to do it (I did come out of "retirement" this past September for a one time deal, though). Our school did traditional Lion Dance. When I started at the school, it wasn't being taught, becuase my Sifu was always told that even though he was learning the traditional stuff the lion dancing was still for the Chinese students (sucks, huh? :)). Anwyay after about a year or two, we were hooked up with a Lion Dance teacher that used to have a big school in San Franicsco (and later moved to LA). He was more than happy to teach us, but the day we were going to make the road trip out, he found out we weren't Chinese. We kind of freaked because we thought he already knew, but he still decided to meet with us anyway, which was cool.

He had some great stuff in his house (a great Lion Dance photo album from the late 60's through the late 70's). He quit teaching the Lion Dancing because his students didn't appreciate what he was showing them, so he just stuck to teaching Choy Lay Fut. But when he saw how excited and eager we were to learn it, he decided to give us a shot. Man those were some wicked training sessions. But the strenght that I built from Lion Dancing is more than worth it. Your Kung Fu has to be good to pull that crap off :)

My shoulders, forearms, and legs got a lot stronger (even though the Lion head is paper mache' -sp?- the body/tail adds some weight, plus all the sharp movements that you've got to pull off for long periods of time). It didn't improve my kicking or punching power or anything, but it did wonders for my trips/sweeps and takedowns. I only learned the head, beacuse of time constraints (we had to travel to LA for 3-4 hour "Lion Dancing" seminars basically, but he would come down to our school every once and a while too). He was basically choosing one person to teach them one part, and we were supposed to teach each other the rest. My bro did the tail, and we had some guys in a band learn the music. In fact our drummer was so amazing, we basically read each other, and pretty much knew what the other was going for. We did a demo once where the school we were at did the Lion Dance (the learned it from the same guy as us, but we also helped them out), but our guy did the drums. During the whole performance, the other Sifus kept looking over to see who was drumming, instead of watching the Lion. One of Tat Mau Wong's students came up and started talking with our drummer, but I didn't hear too much of what they were saying, but the guy was impressed.

Anyway, I know the head pretty well, and I can sub in for the tail, and the sybmols and gong, but I can't for the life of me play the drum. I was always too busy teaching the head to learn it, and it has caught up with me on more than one occaision. :(

Jaguar Wong
The 6th Deadly Venom!

Jaguar's Wife (To "Judo" Gene Lebell): "Excuse me, my friend (Tigerstyle) wants to know if we can take a picture of you choking him."
Gene LeBell (in a gravely voice): "If he don't mind, I don't mind."
- actual event from DragonFest 1999

[EARTH DRAGON]

I wonder if it is the same man I met when I lived in san Fran? he was very nice and balding with thick glasses. anyway he taught us lion dancing in exchange for his daughter to learn from our master privatly and we did many dances to open up businesses in the bay area, I was the drummer in many of them. And I enjoyed it very much. It seems to be a lost artin the US except in San Fran where it is everywhere.

http://www.kungfuUSA.net

[wushu chik]

I asked because it seems to be stuck in San Francisco, and New York. Our school does Lion Dancing, and they are getting pretty good at it. We have been learning from various Lion Dance Teams on the West Coast. It's fun! And there are so many people interested in it it's amazing. I believe that if more schools would do it publicly, it would promote that area of Chinese Culture dramatically, and because it's such a "new" thing to most, it's amazing to see the different reactions!!

I am ALWAYS Kung Fu Fighting.....what about you?

[wu_de36]

there is a school in Columbus, Ohio that does Lion Dance... Wing Lam school Sifu Jeff Nayers I think.

I don't know much about it, but I was impressed with their dance.

[Robinf]

We also teach/learn the lion dance. Unfortunately, there are only three of us who show up to those classes consistently--makes it very tiring.

Robin

Surrender yourself to nature and be all that you are.

[SaekSan]

WC: That has been the main drive for our Lion Dance Troupe, Chinese cultural promotion. There's some talk of even having a Dragon Boat Festival held here, after the stirr we gave the community in the past few years. Our school was the first to perform a lion dance in our city (some 6 years ago) and every year we get more and more requests for our troupe (we already have 21 dances booked up for the New Years). But with this comes the people that weren't properly taught... in the past couple of years we have seen many people who never had formal training (and see this as an opportunity to make $ and self-promotion) so they do not understand the cultural significance of what they are doing, essentially they do a dance that has no meaning, very sad.

WD: Jeff Naayers is a Wah Lum teacher under Chan Pui. Wing Lam's representative in Ohio is John Ervin.

:)

[wushu chik]

I agree very much with you on the fact that people that don't know what they are doing, makes it look as if has no substance and looks rediculous. We are trying very hard to learn the correct ways to Lion Dance. Our school is relatively new, and the guys are trying their hardest to make the best of what we have!! We have done a few lion dances for various businesses, events, etc, and have gotten nothing but the highest compliments from Asian Americans that have seen lion dancing before, and then seen us! So, I guess we are doing something right!!! But, again, I agree that it makes it hard when you see people just out for money trying to make a quick buck with something so special!!

I am ALWAYS Kung Fu Fighting.....what about you?

[fiercest tiger]

all i can say is yau kung moon in the u.s and ykm in the world are one of the best lion dancers!

i think every traditional school should have it, if they dont i dont think its a complete system.

:)

come & visit us!
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ykm
yaukungmun@hotmail.com

[SaekSan]

Your school is procuring other schools to learn from, that is an excellent way to learn your stuff. My only problem is with people who only learned from a video or saw a dance once and is immitating it now for their own profit.

I'm sure you are learning with your heart in the right place and being guided properly. If the Asian community supports you that is even better, keep up the hard work, the entire community (not just the Asian) appreciates and gains by schools like yours.

:)

[wushu chik]

We are DEFINETLY trying our hardest to keep it "real". We have seen people who have not, and it's sad and kinda degrading. We are busting tail to try to do our best to be sure that we have nothing but the highest respect for the CULTURE and art itself.

I am ALWAYS Kung Fu Fighting.....what about you?

[brassmonkey]

"i think every traditional school should have it, if they dont i dont think its a complete system"

FT out of curiousity maybe you can elaborate on this. Perhaps since I've never done liondancing my opinion is off but it seems to me that the more time you practice dancing the less time you have for practicing.

[Tainan Mantis]

His Wah Lum school students have been giving world class performances at Disney's Epcot on a daily basis for years. Not sure about now though.

The lion dancing that you refer to is a characteristic of southern China, so traditional schools from the North don't have it.
The exception being MArtists of Northern schools who passed on their knowledge in the south, such as Hong Kong. In this case some southern traditions have been incorporated into traditional northern Chinese schools.

[wu_de36]

Saeksan... you are, of course, correct:) I knew I shoulda checked that before I posted. But I was drunk. oops.