Stephen Chew wrote:
> For the lion portion, we start with a good horse stance. Then practice
> getting the "snap" with left, center, right, center, etc. It's a similar
> motiion to throwing a punch with the power originating from the waist.
> This is the Kung Fu tie. Later, we add a one legged stance on each side
> and do up down.

Getting that "snap" - exaggerating our normal snap, rather! - is what's difficult for some of us to really do. This is the source of our "drunken" or "dizzy" lions! I know that there is a place and a time for such a lion, but not normally! We have worked on various walks...totally open stances (horse, fronts, etc facing the audience) to totally closed (facing towards the side) stances and movements. Each set of movements all have the same basics - what I would call "hard" stepping, powerful "snaps" into each stance, and deliberate movements of the head, including tilting it to an angle, so that one eye focuses on what's ahead.

This coordination of movements - the stances with the head movements is very challanging to me! Fortunately, we have lots of practice time, before our time in NYC.

> Horse stance, Staggered stance, Bow stance, Cat stance, Twist stance,
> Staggered stance, Backbow stance, Horse stance.

Sounds much like one pattern we've learned... horse, look right, right san-ti (what would be your cat stance), horse (look down).. etc.

> After that, you learn the different pieces that comprise a show.
> FOR THE LIST, what are the "pieces" that comprise a show for you?

We have our opening, walk about, then any of the following: address the drum, address the audience, kiss and a hug, the challange (which could be any of a number of challanges, and is broken down into its various parts: the approach, the bow (address), the answer, then the walkabout), sometimes another kiss and a hug (depending if we're bringing out other lions or not), then the close. I hope I didn't miss anything!

Our NYC New Year's anctics will be very different! Each storefront will get 3 bows and a little "ditty", unless they put out a challange for us. This is tiring, simply because doing these 3 bows requires us to extend the lion head all the way out, many many times! If we do 60 stores in a row, then that's 180 bows right there! Plus, the movements between stores!

I noticed that other teams seem to switch their players more often .. we tended to go for blocks at a time before changing who was under the head. I don't know if either approach better, but I know that our approach is very tiring!

Bernard

To all

Just a simple thought on firecrackers. Bothe my original Sifu and my current sifu are deaf in one ear due to firecrackers entering the lion during the dancing and going off in their ears. Perhaps simple shooting sonic earplugs would be of some help. They would not be easily seen by the public even when the dancers come out of their lion and they still allow lower level sound to easily pass the internal baffles for conversation.

Bruce

> Getting that "snap" - exaggerating our normal snap, rather! - is what's
> difficult for some of us to really do. This is the source of our
> "drunken" or "dizzy" lions! I know that there is a place and a time for
> such a lion, but not normally!

The snap is not so much a function of stance or stepping as it is waist power. Of course, no stance, no power but even you northern folks should have a stable stance :-)

> We have worked on various walks... totally
> open stances (horse, fronts, etc facing the audience) to totally closed
> (facing towards the side) stances and movements. Each set of movements
> all have the same basics - what I would call "hard" stepping, powerful
> "snaps" into each stance, and deliberate movements of the head,
> including tilting it to an angle, so that one eye focuses on what's ahead.

Sounds similar to what we do. I assume you have short and long "walks." Not every turn requires snap, the snap should be at the end of the movement/walk. We work with the brass rings while doing the head and that helps add snap to our movements.

> This coordination of movements - the stances with the head movements is
> very challanging to me! Fortunately, we have lots of practice time,
> before our time in NYC.

This is my problem too. My movements are all disjointed. More practice...

> Sounds much like one pattern we've learned... horse, look right, right
> san-ti (what would be your cat stance), horse (look down).. etc.

Yeah, I believe that our drills our not "standard" drills but we all do them. :-)

Do you really do san-ti? Like in the Hsing-yi stance? Most external styles will do a cat/empty stance. The main difference is that in the empty stance, the front heel is raised and in San-Ti, the heel is flat. The other stance in this set is the 7-star where the toe is raised and the heel on the ground. Just curious.

> We have our opening, walk about, then any of the following: address the
> drum, address the audience, kiss and a hug, the challange (which could
> be any of a number of challanges, and is broken down into its various
> parts: the approach, the bow (address), the answer, then the walkabout),
> sometimes another kiss and a hug (depending if we're bringing out other
> lions or not), then the close. I hope I didn't miss anything!

This is great stuff. I'd like to hear what others are doing. Chinese New Years is just around the corner...

What kind of opening do you do? Is this the Hei Si?

What is Kiss and Hug? We do shake hands which is two bows that pass each lion with the face looking at the body on the way back (left and right) then a bow to the center and come close which looks like a kiss but the heads shake hands through the mouths.

We'll list the "challanges" in another email.

What is address the drum? And you do this after you walk around?

> Our NYC New Year's anctics will be very different! Each storefront will
> get 3 bows and a little "ditty", unless they put out a challange for us.
> This is tiring, simply because doing these 3 bows requires us to extend
> the lion head all the way out, many many times! If we do 60 stores in a
> row, then that's 180 bows right there! Plus, the movements between
> stores!
>
> I noticed that other teams seem to switch their players more often .. we
> tended to go for blocks at a time before changing who was under the head.
> I don't know if either approach better, but I know that our approach is
> very tiring!

Since we are not in chinatown, we haven't done the "block parties." We might try to get some this year. We have done 7 performances in a day. We usually do a dance and Kung Fu demo so we get pretty tired at the end of the day.

Stephen.

Stephen Chew wrote:
> The snap is not so much a function of stance or stepping as it is
> waist power. Of course, no stance, no power but even you northern
> folks should have a stable stance :-)

[Grin] Oh, yes, we have a "stable" stance.. however, the method of arriving into the stance tends to be smooth.. some people "lock" their stances stronger than others. We also tend to bring our feet together in a parallel horse as a transition between many of our stances..we're taught that lions don't step that way! It's almost like a stomp, relative to how we normally step.

> Do you really do san-ti? Like in the Hsing-yi stance? Most external
> styles will do a cat/empty stance. The main difference is that in
> the empty stance, the front heel is raised and in San-Ti, the heel is
> flat.
> The other stance in this set is the 7-star where the toe is raised and
> the heel on the ground. Just curious.

Hmm.. I guess that this would depend upon what everyone would agree to how a stance would look like. What I was taught as a san-ti is that our weight is on our rear foot (with knee bent, and the toe is out 90degrees) and the front foot is up on the toe, heel raised. This seems to be what you call an empty stance by your definition above.

> This is great stuff. I'd like to hear what others are doing. Chinese
> New Years is just around the corner...

Ditto...

> What kind of opening do you do? Is this the Hei Si?

I'm not sure what the Hei Si is - we open with 3 bows - straight, right, left.. is this what you mean?

> What is Kiss and Hug? We do shake hands which is two bows that
> pass each lion with the face looking at the body on the way back
> (left and right) then a bow to the center and come close which looks
> like a kiss but the heads shake hands through the mouths.

This is what we do, but we don't shake the hands at this point. If we do a passing with another school, there is a passing ceremony where we will do something similar on the ground (shaking of hands, exchanging cards, etc).

> What is address the drum? And you do this after you walk around?

Yes, we've done this after the walk around... and the address is a bow to the drum (with the appropriate bow beat) and then another walk around.

> Since we are not in chinatown, we haven't done the "block parties."
> We might try to get some this year. We have done 7 performances in
> a day. We usually do a dance and Kung Fu demo so we get pretty tired
> at the end of the day.

I would recommend it - if nothing else but for the experience. We are about 45 minutes from NYC, so it's a massive effort to get everything up there for this event.

Bernard

For many years we've used ear plugs to help stop from going deaf from all the firecrackers going off near the lion :).. You can buy spongey things which squeeze into the ear and stop quite a bit of sound. The next thing we need is a gas mask, you can hardly breathe when dancin' through a thick cloud of firecracker smoke :)

Does anyone have the phone number to Clarion Music? I am looking for a set of cymbols.

Hi - The phone number is: 415-391-1317. The best person to talk to there is Clara Hsu.

Andy

It's on their website www.clarionmusic.com

(415) 391-1317
(888) 343-5374 (Toll free in the US)

Stephen

The drum is the heartbeat of the lion and therefore, it signifies the soul of the club. Further translated, the drum signifies the club's Sifu. Therefore, paying respects to the drum is much like bowing your head to the sifu before you perform a kung fu demonstration.

Sherman

Hi all,

> This is how we train. We focus on the basics. We actually don't
> join competitions so we don't train for that. What is that like?

It is just the same, just an extension of the basics.

> After that, you learn the different pieces that comprise a show.
> FOR THE LIST, what are the "pieces" that comprise a show for you?

Almost all of our show is involves plucking green(choi chiang). We start with the 3 bows, then walk around, then the choi chiang bit:

1) Notices the green.
2) Tastes the greens.
3) Eats the greens.
4) Swallows the greens.
5) Spits the greens.
6) Washes the mouth/face.
7) Washes the legs.

Then we end with the 3 bows. It is the same for ground or on the platforms. For the wine green we have the big headed monk, and the addition of the drunken steps and the sleeping/waking bits.

> I am the most guilty of this. I'm still a beginner. I've only
> been doing this for two years. I still just fall back on basic
> drills and don't really get creative. The senior of the group
> know how to make the Lion look intelligent :-)

The only way is more practice! Good dancers 'feel' what they The problem of learning lion head is that the dancers cannot see what they look like when their under the head. The normal way is to have someone ourside telling them what they look like. WE try video taping, but it is still not perfect. The best idea I have heard, from a sifu friend of mine, is to train with just the lion head frame, so that the dancers can see themselves through the lion head. The problem is that the weight is misrepresented, and they do need a big mirror! Getting the bare lion head frame is aslo a problem, unless you have old heads.

Well, that's all from me for now.

Happy lion dancing,
George,

On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, J.S. Chan wrote:
> not perfect. The best idea I have heard, from a sifu friend of mine, is
> to train with just the lion head frame, so that the dancers can see
> themselves through the lion head. The problem is that the weight is
> misrepresented, and they do need a big mirror! Getting the bare lion
> head frame is aslo a problem, unless you have old heads.

This is what we do. You're right about the weight, but it's always give and take, I guess. But I think that the feel can be generally be preserved if the frame is nice and solid.

Bye,

Hugo

Hi Ko,

My Sifu is selling a video of Kun Seng Keng's 1995 USA Southwest tour. It features kungfu performances, Tai Chi performances, and Kun Seng Keng's famous lion dance performances. The video is from their performance at SMU McFarlin Auditorium. You can reach my sifu at jkwong@chinwoo.com. Hope this helps. Bye!

J. Minh Nguyen