The Straits Times | Anatomy of a lion dance - video Dailymotion

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How is a lion dance move performed? And what does it take to do those high pole stunts that get audiences cheering?  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 This is Chueh Boon and Jerell.

00:14 And they're the Lion Dance duo who

00:16 won the Genshin World Lion Dance Championship last year,

00:19 breaking a 13-year reign by Malaysian teams.

00:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:27 But what exactly does it take to do those winning stunts while

00:30 clad in a lion costume?

00:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:34 In Lion Dance, we have what we call the [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

00:41 which means the partners have to balance the lion head

00:45 on the lion tail's leg.

00:46 Then we have the [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

00:48 which means the lion head have to sit on the lion tail's head.

00:52 These are the basic moves.

00:54 We can enhance it by doing maybe 180 or 360 degrees turn.

01:01 And all of this, they have to do while balancing on high poles

01:04 with a landing plate of only 30 centimeters across

01:08 and up to 2.5 meters off the ground.

01:13 Three hardest move.

01:13 One of it is doing a somersault, going down from the pole.

01:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:20 The lion tail will jump over the lion head.

01:24 And then continue to bring the lion head down to the floor

01:27 back to back.

01:29 The hard part for somersault is that we

01:31 have to make sure the lion tail lands

01:32 on the floor on the ground first before the lion head continues

01:36 the move.

01:36 Both of us doing is one thing, but carrying the lion itself

01:40 is like an object blocking.

01:42 So we have to jump over the lion.

01:46 Another hard move is what we call a spider.

01:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:53 Hanging my partner, which is the lion head, on the poles.

01:57 Normally for the hanging movement,

01:59 the lion tail tends to hurt the back easily.

02:03 Because the lion head itself is at least 40 to 50 kg.

02:06 So it's like carrying weight and then hanging on the pole.

02:09 It's difficult because if I don't have good balance,

02:12 I will fall in front.

02:14 Some difficulties that are more challenging

02:17 are the backwards movements.

02:22 For instance, we have to do a 1.4 meter backward movement

02:26 followed by sitting on the head.

02:28 The hard part for the backwards movement

02:30 is that we have to coordinate well on the timing

02:33 and then must have very good balance

02:35 because we can't see the poles.

02:38 The lion tail have to be very familiar with the footstep.

02:42 If not, once he misses, both of them will drop to the ground

02:46 to overcome the fear.

02:49 The longest time we took was maybe about around one week.

02:54 We have to do a consecutive movement

02:57 from flying across 1.8 meters and then

03:00 link to the somersault.

03:02 During training, there was a time

03:04 when I jumped over the partner, but he missed the step.

03:07 So both of us fell onto the ground.

03:09 Then I fractured my wrist.

03:11 As much as we want to avoid all these injuries,

03:14 but sometimes maybe because after work, we are both tired.

03:17 But the training still has to go on.

03:19 If we are not in good spirits,

03:21 then we might cause some mistakes.

03:24 But of course, we will try our best to protect each other.

03:28 If there's no trust, there's no us.

03:31 Ah...

03:33 I'm not touched.

03:36 Falls and breaking bones aside,

03:37 these guys have to make everything look effortless

03:40 and also tell a story.

03:44 When I'm in the lion's den,

03:46 I will act like a lion.

03:50 I want to make the audience happy

03:52 and watch our performance.

03:55 I want to blink my eyes and shake my butt

03:58 to make them happy.

04:01 There's a rope around his eyes and ears.

04:04 It's this line.

04:06 I pull it.

04:08 And his mouth is like this.

04:11 Sometimes, I will think of another movement.

04:16 Then I will look at my lion's head.

04:18 I don't want him to look at the outside.

04:22 I have to keep training, keep training, keep training.

04:24 I need muscle memory.

04:27 We are so committed to lion dance.

04:31 We seldom have time to meet our friends outside.

04:35 So I think we can classify these lion dancers as a family.

04:40 Second family.

04:41 I see them more than I see my mom.

04:43 (MUSIC)

04:48 (MUSIC)

04:53 (MUSIC)

04:58 (upbeat music)

05:01 [Music]

The Straits Times | Anatomy of a lion dance

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