Our lion dance troupe, the Cambridge University Lion Dance Troupe, was founded in January 1999.
I had always enjoyed performing and watching lion dance in Singapore. By the time I came to Cambridge to study I had already been doing lion dance for at least seven years. Not wanting to lose my lion dance skills due to lack of practice and also to continue my lion dance "career" - teaching other people interested in the art, I decided to set up a lion dance troupe in Cambridge.
After sending out e-mails to various societies to "advertise" my idea and to gauge the response I found that quite a few people were interested in doing lion dance. After meeting the people who were responded to the "advertisement" I had the confidence to set up the troupe as I was, by this time, quite sure that they were genuinely interested.
We registered ourselves as a university society in Cambridge and worked out times to train each week and very soon our lion dance troupe was officially set up.
Currently we are using equipment borrowed from Mr. Peter Lee, the owner of Charlie Chan's, a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge. He is also very interested in lion dance and was more than happy to lend us his personal equipment.
Our troupe has received funding from the university as well as many organisations in Singapore. We have plans to bring in at least two custom-made lion costumes and a drum from Singapore in October.
The troupe has had incredible success since January when it was first set up. In a short span of three months we had already had three performances during Chinese New Year, and we will be doing another major performance for Robinson College in Cambridge for their May Ball.
We follow the "He Shan" school of lion dance, the form of lion dance that my instructor in Singapore taught me. He always emphasised on teaching me the "traditional" lion dance passed down through generations by word of mouth. (There are many "contemporary" forms of lion dance nowadays that have evolved out of the age-old traditional form.) I hope to be able to do the same.
When I set up our lion dance troupe I hoped that would be a long-term affair, continuing to exist even after my four years here in Cambridge. From the way things are going and judging from the interest I see in out current members it looks very much like we will succeed.
LONG LIVE THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LION DANCE TROUPE!
Yang Zihan
President 1998-2000
Cambridge University Lion Dance Troupe
©2006 Cambridge University Lion Dance Troupe