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Vince Ku quietly excuses himself from his martial arts class, bows to the shrine of the three compatriot warriors to show his respect, then sprints upstairs to fetch the lion.
Returning, he pulls a huge papier-mâché head from a canvas bag, hoists it above his shoulders and brings the animal to life. The lion winks and swoops, the long whiskers on its chin waving like a banner with each fluid movement. Its ears wriggle and its mouth gapes open and snaps shut as Ku works the bamboo riggings that control the beast.
It is a comic ballet.
But when Ku and other members of the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association don the full lion garb — twelve-foot-long costumes each covering two people and crowned by the twenty-pound heads — the ballet becomes a display of strength and acrobatic skill as well as a piece of living history.
The generations-old Lion Dance is traditionally performed during the Chinese New Year and is said to chase away evil spirits and welcome good luck and good fortune. Accompanied by a drum, gong and cymbals, the lions alternately preen and stalk, sleep and threaten. During the course of a dance, performers may jump atop dinner-plate-sized discs placed on stanchions more than five feet off the ground; once elevated, they execute gymnastic moves with energy and grace.
“There is a Chinese saying that the skill with which one performs the lion dance correlates to one’s kung fu skills,” says Solow Shifu, a Shaolin teacher and organizer. “There are Lion Dance groups that don’t do kung fu, but in general terms, having a kung fu background helps you do the Lion Dance with spirit.”
Therefore, the Lion Dance is part of the curriculum at the Boulder-based Academy of Chinese Martial and Cultural Arts center managed by SHMKFA. The academy is a kung fu school at its core, but it also offers classes in Taoist healing, Chinese folk dance and tai chi. The intention, says Solow Shifu, is to teach and advance Chinese martial arts and culture. The academy sponsors special programs and exhibitions, and the kung fu practitioners have performed the Lion Dance and Dragon Dance at area events, including at Denver’s Dragon Boat Festival and the Boulder Asian Festival.
SHMKFA members are scheduled to perform the Lion Dance at 7 p.m. Friday, September 19, at the second annual Bear Fair, when the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District kicks off its fifteenth-anniversary celebration.
The Lion Dance is one of several acts — including the Denver Brass, Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night) and the New Philharmonic with Nina Storey and Wendy Woo — providing free entertainment at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, 1000 Englewood Parkway, Greenwood Village, from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Bear Fair is slated as a “thank you” to the citizens of the seven-county metro area who support the cultural district through a sales-use tax. (It’s also good PR for the district, whose funding is set to expire in 2006; SCFD proponents will be seeking reauthorization by voters next year.)
The SCFD gala continues through Wednesday, September 24, with more than 150 SCFD-funded organizations offering free performances and displays throughout Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties. A cornerstone of the celebration is the annual Colorado Performing Arts Festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, September 20, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, September 21, at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Live theater and dance, a kids’ tent and other free activities will keep the joint jumping. For information, call 303-640-6944 or visit www.artscomplex.com.
For a complete list of SCFD events, go to www.artstozoo.com or area Starbucks cafes.
