MY LION DANCE
This lion dance was created and performed for my freshman year Spatial Dynamics class. We were given 2 weeks to conceptualize and execute this project. The only prompt was that it had to involve at least two people and have some sort of wood element. I made a lion dance self portrait (with blinkable eyes, a wobbly baseball cap, and chunky wooden birkenstocks). Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance came on as my lion-dance-self proudly crawled and danced to the entirety of the song. The structure of the head was made entirely from cardboard. The whole head and body was covered with colored felts. My friend, Jesse, kindly played the role of my butt and legs, shaking to Gaga as I would.
I am Taiwanese American. I have always been fascinated by the lion dances people would perform at my Taiwanese school’s cultural events. The green lion dance is the lion dance that originates from Taiwan! This is an homage and sort of self-critique. Instead of an elegant, action packed lion dance, mine is more of a fumbling awkward one.
