In the Lion's Head

I did my first ever lion dance performance as the opener for the tiger challenge. The benches: packed, my pants: on, my nerves: at an all time high. But the dance went as smoothly as I could have hoped for with less than an hour total of practice time beforehand, and there were no significant goof-ups (unless you count my lettuce throw coming out in a single giant clump -> definitely need to practice that some more)

It was a blast and I feel so lucky that I was able to perform a dance as it's something I've wanted to try for a while now. I want to work on becoming more familiar with animating the lion as I found my hands were moving around quite frantically trying to find the string to blink the eyes, or pull the mouth back at times, and I really want to work on making my dance overall, look more dynamic and sharp making the movements more explosive and precise but I suppose that will all come with practice. 

The second lion dance I did after the parade last saturday I didn't walk away from quite as happy with my performance. I was hot, and thirsty, and more exhausted that I have been in a long time and I very seriously considered asking Sidai Csillag if they could be the head because I really didn't feel up to it at all. But I didn't want to throw away an opportunity to practice so I climbed in that head and gave it my best. The whole thing felt sloppy, rushed, and most of all lacking spirit. I flubbed the lettuce throwing even worse than I did the first time around and despite my best efforts to try to recover and finish strong, my hands slipped on the frame and I barely did the last head tucks after the three bows, a clumsy end to a mediocre dance. The whole rest of the day I was feeling pretty down on myself, our lion dancing is supposed to represent our school and I did not dance to the quality our school deserves. As one of our blackbelts and member of the I Ho Chuan I feel distraught about the quality of skill I put on display. 

All of this to record how I was feeling after each dance, not as a way to throw myself under the bus, but as a record of my thoughts and a motivator to practice more in the future. Now that I have had a taste I am really excited about working on my lion dancing in the future, developing how I want to move as a lion, and refining my skills, but I know I have a long way to go to get there so I better get practicing!

Current TotalShould Be At
Push-ups1258519286
Sit-Ups1095919286
Hand Form131357
Weapon Form150357
Other Forms124 ->almost back on track! :D125
Sparring271357
AOK248357
Steps977554
Repair Relationship24
Me and White Supremacy69
12 Applications04
1-on-1's1218
Kung Fu Art04
Blogs1418

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