I would like to open with how proud I am of all our lion dancers. Everyone works very hard and the results (in spite of what may be thought from our stories) have been very successful.
We have a very good team who are at times a little over confident. They take after me in this regard. One of my greatest flaws is the inability to recognize when I should ask for help or have that little extra practice. More guts than brains I always say.
However, this is not always a weakness. Our team is always coming up with new ideas and more complicated steps to our dance. They overcome their fears (fear of heights being one of them) and accomplish great things.
The practices are always an adventure as this is where we try to get all our mistakes out of the way. This is usually the case and is always good for a laugh. (not to mention a good dose of stress) It is amazing how you can know something so well and yet still make a total mess of it.
I guess that is half the fun, finding out what else could go wrong.
It is also the time when we really try to instill the history and culture of the dance. Many times people forget just how much goes into the creation of performing arts. It helps to keep a person humble by remembering just how much we don't know having not been raised in this culture.
It would surprise many just how much is going on under that lion. The head itself is a complicated piece of equipment and the tail spends the entire time bent over at the waist. A very strong back is required for this.
I really hope more people decide to take part in the lion dancing. It is a lot of fun and well worth the rewards.
Sifu Freitag
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