Hi this is Kiley Wong from Chicago. I would like to know if you have any liondance tapes of your lion dance group. If you do i would like to take a look at them. I would pay for the tape if you wanted, and i will pay for shipping. I just want to see how other groups are, and how the difference is with my group! If you are willing you can contact me at 312 842

Hi this is Kiley Wong from chicago, if you have any liondance tapes of your group, i will be willing to purchase them, i just wanna see how the other groups are like. i will pay for shipping too. If you are interested please call me at 312 8423523 or page me at 312 398 1057

In response to John M Nguyen's letter:

Hi,

Thanks for your input. Actually we do something similar to practice the arms and shoulders, only we use those plastic chairs you'll find in hawker centers in S'pore and Malaysia (or in some people's gardens). Holding and shaking one of those chairs upside-down above your head is mighty strenuous after a while. They are good in the sense that you can't rest them on your head or on your shoulders the same way you can with a Lion head; thus you are forced to work your shoulders all the time. The chairs also come in handy when we make not-so-experienced Lion dancers practice two Lions. Making them practice with chairs in the beginning, avoids a lot of unneccessary knocks to the real Lion heads.

Pontus

here's a msg I got the other day - can anyone help him out?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 22:48:06 -0600
From: yew chun khe
Subject: Lion Dance Equipment (Urgent)

Hello! This is Yew Chun Khe from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois. I am the president of the Chinese Student Association too. On February 20th, 1997, we may perform a lion dance for our university's international festival. But we can't get the complete equipment for the lion dance.

1st, because it is too expensive to rent one.
2nd, if it is free of charge, we need to drive for 6 hours to Chicago to get one.
3rd, as I said before we don't have enough money to affort the trip.

I hope you could give an advise or maybe you could tell me someway around here that can get one with reasonable price or even rent one.

I hope you could reply me before the end of this week. I will be very appreciate your help.

Best Regard,

Yew Chun Khe
President of the CSA
Email: yewchun@

and another request I got - anyone able to help out?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 09:58:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Son69526@
Subject: lion head

where are the best lion head you can buy light and strong , need one for lion dance group in denver, our is getting old and need a new one for next new year.

Hello everyone on the list!

Guess I'm new so I'll introduce myself. My name is Paul Hung from the city of Boston, Massachusetts right here in the U.S.A.

Why I joined this list is to get advice and stuff from you more experienced lion dancers. What we're trying to do right now is getting university recognition for our lion dance group. We currently have about 10...12...undefined members ever since our New Year's performance a week ago (which was pitiful =( but fun nevertheless)

Our performance involved a fund-eating $530 southern lion head imported from Guangdong, a native american drum, a pot cover (for the cymbals and gong), and a fender off of an '86 Caddy. Lot's of improvisation.

Anyways, I was just wondering if there is any sort of set storyline or any set traditional structure there is to a performance. I would especially like to know what the heck the little buddha is supposed to do. (other than rolling over a table and running into a wall as I did.)

Thanxalot!

-Paul

Hello, my name is Oliver Labo and I would like to learn more about lion dancing. I find the different the history and meanings of the moves very interesting and I would like to learn more!

I am from Toronto, Canada where lion dancing is rare, and the ijnformation about the topic even more difficult to find.

Hi,

I would like to know if there are any lion dancers in this news group that is from Vancouver, BC?

I noticed that there aren't alot of Canadians in this lion dance mailing list.

Johnny Chan

Welcome to the list Paul.

I'm bummed because I have pretty much missed Chinese New Year performances due to other obligations. The team moves on...

>Guess I'm new so I'll introduce myself. My name is Paul Hung from the city
>of Boston, Massachusetts right here in the U.S.A.

Hey, I was just there. Was there much going on in Boston? I went to Chinatown on Saturday around 5:00pm (only chance I could) and aside from some firecracker paper on the streets, I didn't see much.

>Why I joined this list is to get advice and stuff from you more experienced
>lion dancers. What we're trying to do right now is getting university
>recognition for our lion dance group. We currently have about
>10...12...undefined members ever since our New Year's performance a week

>ago (which was pitiful =( but fun nevertheless)

Having fun is important. Especially for college groups. There are a few on this list. Hopefully you can get some good tips.

>Our performance involved a fund-eating $530 southern lion head imported
>from Guangdong, a native american drum, a pot cover (for the cymbals and
>gong), and a fender off of an '86 Caddy. Lot's of improvisation.

Sounds like a rag-tag band. But as long as you show spirit, who can fault you. Do you have an instructor? Who is giving you direction? Are you patterning your movements and music after something/someone?

>Anyways, I was just wondering if there is any sort of set storyline or any
>set traditional structure there is to a performance. I would especially
>like to know what the heck the little buddha is supposed to do. (other than
>rolling over a table and running into a wall as I did.)

I saw Layton mention Dr. Hu's book. Lots of good info on history but it won't teach you specifics. He's suppose to be writing a follow-up book called Lion Dance Performed but I haven't seen it yet. He came out with the Chinese Folk Tales book recently.

A short answer, the Buddha can play two roles. We usually use the Buddha as a "guide". In one story, the Buddha is the Lion's guide to enlightenment which translates to him leading the Lions through the different obstacles.

The other story is that Buddha is warding off the lions. In this case Buddha torments the Lions. I have not seen this too much.

There is a member, Corey Chan, on this list that has done much research on the Buddha so maybe he can add more.

As far as structure, there is a lot of structure and symbolism involved. Most people today, however, don't know half of what is proper. Leung's White Crane in SF is close to one of the best teams in the US. They rarely follow the traditions in their public shows. I'm sure they know it though.

Yau Gung Moon, is another excellent team from SF and they tend to me more traditional in their performances.

If you want Dr. Hu's book, contact Wing Lam Enterprises. www.wle.com or email wlam@wle.com. I know they have a few copies in stock.

Hope that helps. Ask more questions.

Stephen.

Someone from Denver asked about equipment.

My opinion is to find a contact and get a Lion from Malaysia. They are by far the best built lions for the money I have ever seen or played with.

For ~$800, you can get a complete set that is light but durable. Shipping it here becomes a problem.

If you can't ship more than 5 at a time, most of your cost will go into shipping. I tried to see if there was interest awhile back but no takers. I'm not currently in the position to but a set now but if I found a few others, maybe I would be :-)

I already have established contacts in Malaysia.

Stephen.

Hi paul,

Try to get William C Hu book on lion dancing. Called Chinese Lion Dance Explained... it is 400 pages of everything you ever wanted to know about liondancing and more... lots of history. plubisher by Ars Ceramica Ltd (1995) If you have trouble finding it there are some sources in San Francisco.

PS Some just told me that White Crane In San Francisco did the the tight rope with the metal cables.. I've only read about this last year. An saw it on local HK TV last week .. Now I hear it is done on the mainland(usa) Want next. Lions on stilts. ?????

I believe we get all our Lion Dance equipment from Mr. Siow in Malaysia. I'm not too sure of the price, though. I know my Sifu bought the Northern Lions in mainland China, though. Usually, every time my Sifu (Jimmy K. Wong) goes to Malaysia, he comes back with about 2 Lions. At last count, we have 16 active Lions with about 5 that we haven't given birth to yet.

J. Minh Nguyen

Hi.. My name is Bernard Ortiz-de-Montellano (I know, it's spanish, not chinese, or anything..) I have been involved with the martial arts for the whopping time span of about 3 years. I study under Sifu Rex McCoy in New Jersey at the Shaolin Kung Fu Institute. The system that is taught is the Northern Dragon (Chen family). The school has been involved with Lion dancing for at least 15-20 years, but I am certainly not my SiFu, and cannot speak for him. The school celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

The School is located in Hightstown, NJ (exit 8 on the turnpike), and I can forward any questions/comments to my Sifu, or, you can call him at 609-448-2424.

We do not have a formal troupe that does the dancing, rather it is a group of volunteers from within the school that performs. As such, we don't have a fancy name or anything, just our school. We have performed for community fairs, the Chinese New Year and other events throughout the year, spreading as much good luck as possible for the community.

Our school practices the "Northern" system, but, as anyone well versed in the "Northern"/"Southern" debate knows that the two are linked, and intertwine, much like the Yin/Yang symbol. As such, the type of lion dancing we do is akin to the "Southern" style.

Our school was invited to participate in the festivities this year in New York City. This was my first exposure to this type of Lion Dancing! It was very exciting to perform in the city, but extremely exhausting!

I am overwhelmed by the amount of expertise that is present on the list. Looking at the number of years everyone has had in lion dancing, I truly feel like a newbie. My own experience with the lion dance is just 2 years, and of that time, only for a short period of time around the New Year and various celebrations do I get to practice the dance. The rest of the time, I am kept busy learning the martial art.

It seems that there are few resources avaliable on the web at present on Lion dancing, and I think I've bookmarked all the ones currently avaliable. If anyone would like to ask questions, please feel free to do so. I do know that at the present time, we do not perform the lion dance in competitions (we have a long long way to go for that..), but that might be interesting, if my Sifu is interested in such a thing. Personally, I think I'd be interested in attending such a performance! However, my interest in the Lion dance lies in how I can increase my martial skills, and not performing the dance for the dance's sake... understand? I hope so.

Thanks for your time!

Bernard

Hi Bernard,

Welcome to the list. It's been quiet. I bet everyone has been busy with New Year festivities. Folks on the list, lets hear the stories? I didn't get to particpate this year but I saw some decent shows. Nothing spectacular though.

> We do not have a formal troupe that does the dancing, rather it is a
> group of volunteers from within the school that performs. As such,
> we don't have a fancy name or anything, just our school. We have
> performed for community fairs, the Chinese New Year and other events
> throughout the year, spreading as much good luck as possible for
> the community.

This is pretty common. Some folks here aren't tied to Kung Fu schools but community groups. We all share a love in lion dancing and spreading it around.

> Our school practices the "Northern" system, but, as anyone well versed
> in the "Northern"/"Southern" debate knows that the two are linked,
> and intertwine, much like the Yin/Yang symbol. As such, the type of
> lion dancing we do is akin to the "Southern" style.

I think everyone on the list is from the Southern style. Lots of teams are doing the "Southern Lion in the Northern Style" This is where the Lion does more acrobatics and a shorter lion but still has the southern look.

> Our school was invited to participate in the festivities this year
> in New York City. This was my first exposure to this type of Lion
> Dancing! It was very exciting to perform in the city, but extremely
> exhausting!

Tell of your experiences. How did the different teams work together. I hear New York throws a big celebration but us in California don't get to hear much about it.

> Personally, I think I'd be interested in attending
> such a performance! However, my interest in the Lion dance lies in
> how I can increase my martial skills, and not performing the dance
> for the dance's sake... understand? I hope so.

We practice Lion Dance as a supplement to our martial arts. Both the Northern Shaolin and Southern Hung Gar students participate.

No offense to those who don't have a martial arts background but I think the Lion is much more powerful and alive when solid stances and powerful movements are used. Performing Lion dance in this fashion not only makes for a good dance but improves your stance work and your ability to generate power and speed.

Let's keep the questions flowing...

Stephen.