Today we met Kwan, and was later joined by Benny, at the Indianapolis Global Village Welcome Center over on Lafayette Road. After some technology issues, Kwan finally got his laptop hooked up to a bigger monitor so that he could teach us about the Lion Dance. After about a forty-five minute to an hour presentation, we watched two different dances. The first was two males performing in a state competition here in Indiana, and the other was a group of girls who had choreographed the dance and recorded it. I can’t recall if the girl’s dance was for a competition or just for fun. It was fascinating to see how different the two were from one another. The men’s dance was much more aggressive, with quick movements, jumping off and on the stage, interacting amongst the crowd, and standing on one another’s shoulders to make the lion appear larger. Even the music appeared aggressive, sounding like the banging of the drums was preparing the people for war. The women’s dance was much more elegant, with slower and swift moves. Some of the girls not under the costume even did gymnastics in front of the lion. I thought their music was more upbeat and welcoming. Kwan asked us if we had a favorite of the two, but it was too hard to pick one because even though one would think they would be very similar, they were different in their own unique ways. We then had the opportunity of trying on the lion costume that was there at the Global Village. The person in the back had a much easier job, as they just stayed bent at the waist at a ninety-degree angle to support the back side of the costume. The person in the front had to hold onto the lion head, and then lift it up and down onto their own head, as if the lion was alive. Occasionally, when the head was raised up, the person would look left and then right, as if the lion were looking around the room. All of this happened while Kwan played the big drum and Benny stood in front of the lion dancers to guide them around the room.
In his presentation, Kwan explained that many cultures in Asia perform their own version of the Lion Dance. The Lion Dance started in Chinese culture when lions were first brought to that part of the world. Until that time, a lion was only a myth to the Chinese people, so they began to make costumes based off of their imagination of what a lion would look like. In China, the lions are either traditional style or contemporary style. The only way I know how to describe it is that the contemporary style closely resembles something one might see out of a cartoon, with fur surrounding the eyes and other parts of the head. The Lion Dance is typically performed during festivals, as it often represents joy and happiness. The dance is always performed during the Chinese New Year, in hopes of bringing prosperity and good luck for the year to come. Kwan also explained that there is a northern style of the dance and a southern style. Northern style dances often resemble martial arts and include more gymnastics or jumping. Because of this, the lion costumes for a northern style dance are typically less decorative and lighter to allow for better movement. The southern style dance, on the other hand, is meant to be more comical and fun for the audience. The costumes are usually decorated very nicely and the performers do moves that resemble how a lion actually moves.