In a message dated 3/31/99 2:09:21 PM, bigjay@total.net writes:
>Hey, how come the mailing list has been so quiet lately??

everyone is probably still in awe of the lion dance conference last weekend.

I would like to commend all the organizers, staff, speakers, volunteers and individuals who made the first International Lion Dance conference a huge success. A job well done!

Thank you for promoting and spreading the art of lion dancing.

Dr. Doong Chang
San Francisco Chinatown

thanks dr. chang..

I think your right about OD on lion dance three days pumped my brain dry..

squiddy.

Hello all,

now that it's a bit quiet and all are either catching their breath from the apparently very exciting and interesting conference, or resting from the new year celebrations, a little note about the list:

Please send your messages in plain text.

Set your mailer not to attach or write in HTML, since not all mailprograms can read that; pine (that I use, since I'm reading mail from a distant location and don't need all the graphics fancy stuff) for instance, won't display the HTML messages, and when I forward or reply to one, it shows the text like below...

TIA,

Rob Teng, list administrator

PS wish I had had the time to come to the conference..:-( Thanks to those who have shared their experience on the list.

Dear Liondancers of the world:

We are a Spanish Theater Company called "El Teatre de L'Home Dibuixat" (The Cartoon Man). You can have more information about us on: http://www.infc.es/~teatre For now we are producing a new show that must be completed over October 1999. The title of this becoming show is 'Around the world in 80 masks'.

We need your help for finding information about Chinese Lions. We WANT to show a Lion at the end of the play, just as a sort of Grand Finale, with a explosion of music, colors and pirotecnics. But we are a bit lost here in Spain. We don't know anybody here that knows about Chinese Lions. We have contacted with the China Embassy, without solution. Now we are searching the World Wide Web, where we found your interesting site.

Could you help us?

We neen information about the making and performing of a Lion. The more useful would be a video. Coul you send us one? We will pay for the mailing and the costs of recording. And will be your friends for ever!!!

Thanks for your supporting.

El Teatre de l'Home Dibuixat.
Jose Maria Martinez
teatre@infc.com

Hi,

And welcome to our list! You've found the right place... :-D

I think Chris Low (founder of this list) could help. He had a video tape on how to make a lion head and basic lion dance steps. The picture quality of the video is a bit poor but it should help you (the Spanish Theatre people) started.

Another source to learn about the Chinese Lion is reading from the book by Dr. Hu, titled: Chinese Lion Dance Explained More information about the book and how to order can be found at:

http://www.liondancer.com/hu_book.htm

Also, reading this list's archived will help you understand the kind of topics of interests and concerns current Liondancers are having. The archive can be found here:

http://www.oocities.org/Tokyo/3430/Archives.html

That's all I've got; can anyone add more information to this to help them out? THANKS!!

Good luck!

Dvo

DVo -

Thanks for the vote of confidence, I actually just emailed them telling them I could help. The only thing is the video is in NTSC format and I'm not familiar with what format is the standard in Spain.

Also, regarding your request for the rest of the other Lion Dance Championship video, I'll work on it this week and hopefully get it finished before I leave for San Diego on Friday.

Does anyone have a copy of "Once Upon a Time in China III" that they wouldn't mind letting me borrow? I'd pay for postage and everything. None of my local video rental places carry it.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

I am looking forward to it. THANKS!

About conference video: I just got two vcr from my parents last weekend but they're so old that the video quality is very poor; however, I'd just ask my work place to use their equipment to do the recording...the quality of the vcr is a lot better but it will be slow because I can't be at work recording my stuff all day long...so to those who I said I will make a copy for, please be patient. I will get to you one at a time.

Thanks,

Dvo

Chris about once upon a time in China III i dont know by title but if you give me the story line i will know

Daniel

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Dear Liondancers of the world:

Your answer has been so fast and kind! We are very pleased. Yesterday we only had the idea, but now we can start working! Let me tell you about our future play "Around the World in 80 Masks".

It's a play for 3 actors, that play the characters of 3 'ethno-clowns' that arrive to a theater to tell the audience all about their travells in search of 80 masks for their amazing collection.

The different stories will be told by short sketches, envolving various tehcnics of playing, as puppets, shadows, etc, always with a mask or some masks on them, of course.

The 'ethno-clowns' arrive to the 79th mask in their telling, and in that very moment they notice that an important mask is lost, the 80th mask, the last and more impressive. That will be the Chinese Lion!, that will appear crossing the space between the audience in a explosion of colour and music (maybe some pirotechnia too). The escene of the Lion will put a glorious end to the play.

That escene with the Lion will be only around 5 minutes long, as the rest of sketches (the play is 1 hour in total), so we can't develop a real technic of perfoming a Lion. That must be a simulation, with a previous coreography. The music will be previously recorded, and there won't be improvisation in the performance. The movements of the Lion will be crossing the audience, going up the stage, make some roaring and rolling, and finally stand on its legs. Please, let us know your opinion. We are conscious of not making a real performing, but we are not acrobats although we can play some acrobatics.

As far as we know that will be the first Chinese Lion on a theater stage here in Spain. We are proud of that. Our audience is mainly composed by children and students. We also play for all kind of people all over the country, and visited some important theaters and festivals. After the play, we use to offer some explanations to the audience, as a pedagogical part of the show. That will be the moment to explain the real way of performing a Lion.

Excuse my poor English, thank you all very much.

Jose Maria Martinez
El Teatre de l'Home Dibuixat
(The Cartoon Man Theater)
http://www.infc.es/~teatre

Chris,

There are many shops here in sf chinatown that carry Jet Lee vcd/dvd/video. I'm in the area this week, and I'll stop by and see if it's available, and e-mail you if I find it. I do have the first one on vcd.

Tim

Hey ya'll,

All this talk about movies..anyone have a good list of movies which good lion dance occurs? Right now I know of Once Upon A Time in China III, and Young Masters. If ya know of any, let me know. I need to find some new moves for this preformance we are doing in July which is a dragon boat race event. Don't think we are getting any li-see out of it, just for show and advertisement. Anyone have some cool moves or apparatus ya know of, tell me. I was thinking doing the lion dance on the dragon boat, but I think that is a bit too dangerous and extreme(hehe).

-Tim Hong

Hey Tim,

I don't know alot of movies that have lion dancing in them... except maybe for the wong fay houng movies or Some the earlier jackie Chan movies. However, if you get a chance, you should look at some of the Hong kong fundraiser tapes or thoes telethons. do you know which ones i'm talking about? how advanced is your group? Does your group practice the traditional lion dance? Let us know... maybe we can suggest some move for you guys. =)

Jason.