Feburary 17th: Yesterday we had our second meeting with Benny and Kwan who are representatives from the IACA. One of the opportunities we have for the ICR is to learn and perform the lion dance. The lion dance was something I was very unfamiliar with going into our event as I had only seen it performed a few times on Youtube/TV. We were originally going to learn and possibly perform the dance at the Chinese New Year’s festival. Unfortunately, this event was postponed due to recent concerns with the coronavirus (many people fly in from various destinations to attend this celebration).
As we started learning the dance Kwan taught us two basic movements he wanted us to focus on. First, it was to lift the head up in the air and twist. Then bring the head back down and twist left/right once again. The job of the person in the tail of the suit is to keep their backed maintained at a 90-degree angle and slowly move their arms to make it appear as if the lion was breathing. I was impressed with how passionate Kwan was about the dance, and it really helped our whole group stay more focused. As we got more comfortable with the lion dance we added more movements and even cheerleaders into the dance. The cheerleaders job is to draw the attention of the lion and make him move up and down. Throughout our practice Kwan continued to stress the importance of making the dance fun and attractive for the audience. He even showed us an 8-minute clip from two members of the IACA who had been partners for around 12 years. The way the moved so gracefully was very impressive and you could see how much effort and practice they put into their craft. Overall, I had a great time and look forward to Kwan teaching us more advanced moves in the future.
