HOME → RTWINFO → Jepson Trip → Jepson Girl's Blog → Post #024

The Jepson Girls' World Trip Blog

Jan 29, Month 8

Malaysia Lion Dance - By Amber

I've seen Lion dances in two countries because everyone is getting ready for the Chinese New-year. Every dance is different. First of all in a lion dance two people pretend to be a lion. They wear a costume that has a head and a bottom with one person wearing each part. The lion head has a mouth that opens and closes. Where the nose holes are supposed to be there are fluff balls that wiggle and jiggle on springs. The dancers wear pants that remind me of a 70's fashion because they're fringed and fluffy. On their shoes they usually have a fluff ball like Tinkerbell.

A weird thing about lion dancing is that they do their dance on top of poles that are as tall as me. At the top of the poles is a flat round part that is only a bit bigger than a dinner plate. They must have trained a long time to do their stunts and each lion had their own different ones. Some I saw were when they leaped two to three poles. While this was happening, sometimes the back part of the lion held the person in the front suspended in the air.

The first time I saw a lion dance, I thought it was a dragon dance, but I learned there are differences. The first difference is that a dragon uses more people. They also don't dance on top of poles. The last one is that the dragon dancers use sticks to hold up the dragon costume and the people holding the sticks are easily seen.

The lion dancers do not dance to music they only dance to drums and symbols. The vibrations from the drums and symbols were so big that I could stand inside of a building and still hear it perfectly.

I loved watching the choreography of the dancers. It was funny especially if there were two different lions interacting.

I'd like to wish you a happy Chinese New-Year.