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chimney_swiftI made it!
A month ago, I mentioned that the lion dance troupe I'm in was about to kick into high gear. Well, we sure did! Here are some highlights from a month of dancing.
The first weekend, we did one performance out at a shopping center/outdoor mall and one at a local library. Lion dancing brings good luck and prosperity for the new year, so many businesses request a troupe to perform. The shopping mall sounded like a fun opportunity...but then they asked us to do way more than we originally thought, and barely paid us! The library was way more fun. Tons of kids to interact with and a good practice for our bigger performances.
The next weekend was our performance at the Museum of Fine Arts, for their lunar new year celebration. It's one of our biggest performances, and we actually do our routine twice. It was so cool to show off all our hard work. New for this year was a drumming piece that I was in, which was very cool. Every year we have a "mainstage" performance that's one lion doing really cool stuff, usually following a story and a "general" performance that's two or three lions doing a standard routine. MFA was our first chance to perform all of the different parts, and it went super well. The audiences were great, and during our first performance, I nailed my lift! I'd been working with my partner on it for months.
The next weekend we went out to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for their lunar new year celebration. We only do one performance there, but we bring our "cubs", the children's troupe to perform. They did an amazing job, and I got my lift again!
In between all that, we also performed for a Whole Foods; some supermarkets; a Buddhist temple; and the Bruins! And then we had our big day. I think I'll split off Chinatown's CNY into its own post so this one doesn't get too long. :)
This is us at the MFA. That's me center getting the lift!
Here are our drums, sitting ready for us at the Peabody Essex.
And this one's maybe our favorite. A friend of one of the performers managed to get this shot of us on the jumbotron when we performed at the Bruins game!
A month ago, I mentioned that the lion dance troupe I'm in was about to kick into high gear. Well, we sure did! Here are some highlights from a month of dancing.
The first weekend, we did one performance out at a shopping center/outdoor mall and one at a local library. Lion dancing brings good luck and prosperity for the new year, so many businesses request a troupe to perform. The shopping mall sounded like a fun opportunity...but then they asked us to do way more than we originally thought, and barely paid us! The library was way more fun. Tons of kids to interact with and a good practice for our bigger performances.
The next weekend was our performance at the Museum of Fine Arts, for their lunar new year celebration. It's one of our biggest performances, and we actually do our routine twice. It was so cool to show off all our hard work. New for this year was a drumming piece that I was in, which was very cool. Every year we have a "mainstage" performance that's one lion doing really cool stuff, usually following a story and a "general" performance that's two or three lions doing a standard routine. MFA was our first chance to perform all of the different parts, and it went super well. The audiences were great, and during our first performance, I nailed my lift! I'd been working with my partner on it for months.
The next weekend we went out to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for their lunar new year celebration. We only do one performance there, but we bring our "cubs", the children's troupe to perform. They did an amazing job, and I got my lift again!
In between all that, we also performed for a Whole Foods; some supermarkets; a Buddhist temple; and the Bruins! And then we had our big day. I think I'll split off Chinatown's CNY into its own post so this one doesn't get too long. :)
This is us at the MFA. That's me center getting the lift!
Here are our drums, sitting ready for us at the Peabody Essex.
And this one's maybe our favorite. A friend of one of the performers managed to get this shot of us on the jumbotron when we performed at the Bruins game!
