Lion Dance

In my ICR, IACA, the group got together on Monday night and was taught the lion dance. We started out the practice watching videos of professionals doing the dance. Kwan, a retired man who is apart of the IACA, told us that these dancers have been practicing and working together for many years. After this he showed us a video of amateurs doing the dance and what we would be learning.

He took out the lion suit and I was bewildered by how many moving part there were on the suit. There were many strings in the head to move the eyes and ears. He showed us the basic functions and the two simple parts to the dance, the back and the front.

After this he gave us a chance to try out the dance in the suit. We took turns doing the front and back positions. I was in awe that the head on the suit was so heavy. Kwan took turns timing us to see how long we could do the head position. I thought I would be able to hold the head up and do the position for about 10 minutes, when actually I was only able to do it for one minute.

After this he taught us how to move the head in a specific way, shaking it. He called this tactic “shackling” as the head pops up and down and shakes around. We practiced this technique walking forwards and backwards with a “cheerleader” who held a “pom pom” to guide us. In later lessons we plan on expanding the movements and  learning the moving parts on top of the head (moving eyes and ears). Overall, I had a lot of fun at our first practice and am excited to learn more parts to the dance.