Rotary Run for Life

Well today, September 17, Silent River Kung Fu performed a Lion Dance at the Rotary Run for Life. Master Brinker, Sifu Freitag, and Sifu Dennis were on the drums, gong, and cymbals; Sifu Robertson was busy skipping around as the six-foot-something Little Buddha, and Sihing Davies and I were in Zhang Fei.
We arrived at the exhibition grounds at about 8:30'ish, in a tired state (performing a Lion Dance early in the morning is not fun... unless you are fueled by coffee, energy drinks, some other form of liquid fuel or courage, or just plain insanity), and carried our equipment into the building. From there, Sihing Davies and I (who were wearing the spiffy pants), were met with stares and the occasional inquiry about our pants. We then sat down to a breakfast, courtesy of Master Brinker.
As we waited, I began to notice one thing...ITS FREAKING COLD!!! Probably the bouts of shivering and puffs of crystalized breath clued me into this pretty quickly. Also, I learned that doing a dance barefoot on a concrete floor, when its cold out, isn't such a good mix. Random people fiddling around with expensive and fragile Lion Dance equipment also doesn't add well to the mix.
At about 9:30 or so, we finally began our dance. From my perspective, we did a pretty good dance (yet my perspective was from within the Lion). Although our feet (and hands) were relatively numb from the cold (which impaired our stepping patterns), we carried out the dance quite well, without any trips, slips, or other accidental bumblings.

Joe Harrigan