Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume. During the Chinese New Year, lion dancer troupes from the Chinese martial art schools or Chinese guild and associations will visit the houses and shops of the Chinese community to perform.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance-
Since I was in a troupe many years back, I know how busy the schedule is to travel from one location to another. And weeks before Chinese New Year, there'll be endless nights of practicing. But as a youngster, nights like this means more time spent with your friends. So if you were a parent, would you let your kid learn this? Its a healthy & sociable sport. You might not see your child even on the 1st day of CNY. I'll let you think about it.
his time I'm the spectator, but being a habit, I also see who's the troupe performing. The performance was at KS's apartment, D'Kiara Apartment in Puchong. The lion went to all 4 blocks with parents & kids tailing them from behind.
Every year, troupes comes up with different scenarios & designs as entertainment. I believe in this case, it's Lion slaying the Dragon/Lizard/Snake...hahahha. Quite creative too. Body of oranges, crawls of lettuces, head of pineapple & ears of carrots.
One of KS favourite delicacy during CNY is the mandarin oranges. He can eat that the whole day. And the other, if you wanna please him is bak kwah aka fried pork. Usually what is presented/given by the lion is considered as lucky. So ppl would go stuff their hands down the lions throat for a present. hahaha...now that just sounds terrible. In truth, the lion performers would carry oranges with them to be distributed.
Next up is the presentation of offerings. Remember the previous picture of the dragon/lizard/snake, you notice a plate of offering consist of pamelo, oranges, veggies etc.
Well, the spectators gets mandarin oranges, whilst the ppl who paid for the troupe's services gets a bigger offering =p
The part that everyone was waiting for is the acrobatic lion dance. The front performer is always the most agile coz he does most of the jumping around especially balancing on stilts. Whilst the back performer has to have strength & timing to assist the front.
Its too bad this troupe didn't do the front sit on the back performer's shoulders/head while on stilts. That would have been quite a show. But then, they did performer this without any safety cushion below. I'll give them courage for that.
Since I was in a troupe many years back, I know how busy the schedule is to travel from one location to another. And weeks before Chinese New Year, there'll be endless nights of practicing. But as a youngster, nights like this means more time spent with your friends. So if you were a parent, would you let your kid learn this? Its a healthy & sociable sport. You might not see your child even on the 1st day of CNY. I'll let you think about it.
Every year, troupes comes up with different scenarios & designs as entertainment. I believe in this case, it's Lion slaying the Dragon/Lizard/Snake...hahahha. Quite creative too. Body of oranges, crawls of lettuces, head of pineapple & ears of carrots.
Lions slaying the ?????
That looks like an orange worm
I got my mandarin orange too
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