Good morning, afternoon, or evening wherever everyone is.

Our group will be doing lion dancing for a wedding reception soon, but I would like to know how you other dancers do it. Any feedbacks?

Fresh thanks and regards.

Peter Liew.

Afternoon here.. ;-)

We just did a reception for our sifu's youngest daughter. It was pretty standard. We went in and did four bows (1 to front, 1 to side, etc) to the audience, then did the waterpot/lycee lion dance with the southern lions, then go to sleep, northern lions came out, did their routine (I didn't get to see since I was a southern tail ;) then all lions did a jump up onto four jongs at the same time, then the head person jumps up on the tail person who gets a foot up on the jong.. you know the story.. I'm sure other members might know some special custom that might be followed, but the main thing was to get the right feeling in the atmosphere. Good luck!

Geoff

Check out this page for an idea of how we do weddings in Hawaii.

http://www.pixi.com/~sgwserv/wedding.htm

Good luck!!

Sherman

Hi Peter,

My cousin's wedding was during the new year, and they invited a 'chi ling'(~dragon-head deer-body sacred animal) to performed. They did a simple 'ground green' which I thought was nice and very apropriate. Place 9(same sound as longevity) mandarins around a round tray. Eat the mandarins and arrange the mandarin 'fruit petals' into the chinese word for double happiness on the tray. Arrange any extra petals as decoration around the word. Carry the tray and place on the table.

Hope this helps.

George,

Hello,

I had only heard of the lion, dragon, and monk as dancers. I was not aware that the chi-lin (aka chinese unicorn) was also danced. Could someone please expand on this?

Thank you much,

Eric A. Coles

Hi Eric,

As I understand, Chi-ling dance is a Hakka(a chinese dialect group) people tradition. It is done by 2 person. It has a head similar to the dragon, but much smaller. It is smaller and narrower than a lion head, and has a moveable mouth. The dance involves fast, twisting and jerking head movement. The southern chi-ling has a shorter tail and less furry than the norhten chi-ling. The musical intruments used are a big cymbals and a gong, and sometimes also a chinese trumpet. In Malaysia they perform greens similar to the lion. I heard one even do pole jumping!

There are many other 'animal' dances too. In lion dance, there are the southern, norhtern , green, closed mouth, etc. There are also the pei-yau, north & south chi-ling and dragon. There is even dou-nue, scorpion, bull, etc. In a surporting role, there are the monk, little norhtern lions, lion teaser, phoenix, dragon 'pearl' dancer, etc. There are so many, and these are only those that I heard of. I am very keen to know more about all of them. It will be interesting if others on the list will share on some of these less known dances. In Malaysia, with the increase of the 'popular culture' there is a sharp decline in some of these dances and there are fears that many of them will disapear. Fortunately the southern lion dance is now experiencing a 'revival' with the increasing popularity of competitions, and they are now competitions for the dragon dance. Hopefully, something will be done to the other dances too.

Cheers,

George,

Thank you to all who have responded to my question on Lion Dancing for weddings. Our main guy is putting together a routine, so I'll tell you how it went in a few weeks. It is good to see open discussions on all aspects of Lion Dancing.

Fresh Thanks and Regards to all dancers.

Peter Liew.

Morning,

I'm searching for a video of Chinese New Year celebrations suitable for viewing by young children. I am an adoptive parent of a girl from China and I want to include a video in our celebration of Chinese New Year at her school.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance for your assistance.

Kathy Urbina

How would anyone want to see a copy of International Lion Dance Magazine? It's published bi-monthly and would have stories of lion dance teams from all over the world. Happy lion dancing!!!

NAME: Dorothy Lam
E-Mail: dolphin115@goplay.com
Homepage URL: http://citynight.com/~dolphin/home.html
Location: Oakland, CA , USA
Name of group: Oakland High School Lion Dance Group (1 1/2 years)
Oakland Police Asian Youth Lion Dance Group
(2 1/2 years)-Wu Shu
Lion Dance Style: Southern
How Long: 4 years
Other: Competed in the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy's 1997 International Chinese Martial Arts Championship Lion Dance Competition

i would like to see this this magazine. is it published on paper or can we access it through the internet or some other form? and how can anyone obtain a copy?

TY

I would love to see a copy of the International Lion Dance Magazine, but how could I get a copy of it?

Hi everyone! I am almost finished with my homepage. Hope you can visit my homepage and give me comments on it.

Homepage: http://citynight.com/~dolphin/home.html
My JET LI WEB PAGE!: http://citynight.com/~dolphin

Hi,

Yep, I'm interested. Need more info. Thakyou!

George,

Hi,

> does anyone know where you can get the black and white claws that i've seen
> some teams have? if anyone knows where i can find them, please tell me.

As far as i know, the claws are made by the lion dance teams themselves. It is not a difficult project as I have managed to make 2 sets of the claws. What I did was to stitch up all the finger tips of a cotton glove filled with cotton wool(or similar material). The glove should look like a very slightly clenched palm. Seal the glove and cover the top surface of the glove with the appropriate cloth. Then, if you want, you can glue strips of sheep skin/rabbit fur on the appropriate areas. Most of the teams I know glue the fur in the groves of the gloves but I glue then on the top of the plam and the individual fingers. Then you can stick it onto the shoe.

I hope the info is helpful to you.

George,

Hi everyone,

A while back there was talk about sending this Liondance instruction tape around the members. A member who would have the tapes would only pay the price of shipping to the next member. The only problem was that the tapes were in PAL format. Are we still doing this idea?

About the magazine. Post info to the list please!! I want to subscribe if there really is one! =)

I was also wondering if there is anyone else here in or near the Boston, MA area.

Paul Hung

Hello there,

I haven't been looking around for a good quality Malaysian Lion. I've gotten a few quotes from the States and Malaysia. I was told that there are two types the Malaysian Lions, a more expensive one and a less expensive. The less expensive one is made of bamboo and paper. And the more expensive one is made with some aluminum is I am correct.

Can anyone give me an idea of a fair price to pay for these Lions? Also, have anyone purchased a Lion for Excelsis Musical Company is San Francisco?

John Wai

Hi

I am doing a presentation on Lion dancing and am wondering where you guys get you equiptment, namely the lionhead and drums. A general place is fine and about how much you pay for them. I have been told that most lions are bought and shipped from Hong Kong and cost around $1000.

Your help would be appriciated.
Thanks from a fellow Liondancing enthusiast.

Josmoma@aol.com

Hi John,

They are 6 lion head manufacturers in Malaysia, and they all have their own style and priced. As I am now in New Zealand, I can only tell you what the prices are for the lion from Wan Seng Hang Trading (their lion heads are made using bamboo, rottan and some aluminium) in Malaysia from early this year, hopefully it will be of some help to you.

Prices in Malaysian Ringgit(Rm)
Batik patterned Lion- Rm 1800
Gold & silver Lion - Rm 1600
'Normal' coloured lion - Rm 1350
All sizes cost the same.

I guess the real killer would be the transportation cost, so that's why most of the heads are transported using 'friends' who happen to travel to the buyer's place and traveling light.

Cheers,

George

What is PAL format? I wouldn't mind going with this idea about the video.

Dorothy Lam

Hi,

Jokersp@aol.com wrote:
> can you please give me a step by step instruction on how to make the claw?
> thanks a lot.

I hope you don't mind me posting this on the list. For 1 claw you will need 1 glove( cotton weaved glove, commonly found in Se Asia.), some stuffing(any sponge like material used for filling up dolls, pillow etc.), appropriate colour cloth, thread & needle, PVA glue, rubber glue, sheepskin or rabbit fur(optional) and the shoe.

1. Fill the glove will stuffings until it is slightly "fat" overall.

2. Depending on whether it is a left or right claw, join the finger tips of the cloth to the each other with the thread. It is difficult to describe here, but the claw should look like a very slightly clench palm.(Try touching all your finger tips together.)

3. Close up the glove opening with thread.

4. Cover the glove with the cloth, glueing it with the PVA glue.

5. If you want, cut sheepskin or rabbit fur into short strips, and glue it on the clove with the PVA glue. The strips can be placed on the top of the glove and in the finger groves or on the fingers.

6. Glue the glove with rubber glue onto the shoe.

That's all. ? I hope it will be helpful to you. Does anyone on the list have a different way of making the claw

Bye!

George,

Hi everyone!

Someone Emailed me four pictures of my team in the Competition!! I linked the pictures in my Home Page. I plan to buy a scanner in a few months so I will scan in much, much more pictures then...So, please be patient and check out those pictures then. I will notify everyone when it happens. = )

http://citynight.com/~dolphin/home.html

Hey everyone,

Just checked out dolphin's pix =) Is smashing pottery very common?

Paul

Great Pics. Look forward to seeing more.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Stephen.

> Just checked out dolphin's pix =) Is smashing pottery very common?

Dolphin's group was the only one to do it at the competition. It was a great change to the the walking the pyles.

Dolphin, no insult to the second team, but why did they do the exact same routine? Is this a standard routine for your group.

For Paul, I've seen it before but it is not very common.

Stephen.

Hey Paul,

When I saw the competition, I was a little surprised too at the smashing of the pottery, and it's the first time that I ever saw such a thing. If and when I hook up with my Sifu, I'll find out. However, I'm looking if anyone out there is familiar with what is referred to as "OG" style of lion dancing. That would be the likes of the proper formation of the 7 star puzzle, and the crab which spells a character and the likes.

-Jarrett