How our 2nd major lion dance performance went.

Last sunday, our troupe had the second major lion dance performance. It was the opening performance to the Chinese New Year gala show. This show is held anually by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Cambridge, which happens to be the official Chinese student body here.

If you watch any Chinese television, you will notice that they have annual CNY galas as well. I guess it's just a very Chinese thing to do a variety show as part of CNY activities. Our own little CNY gala here has a similar objective. It's meant as a reminder of home to those who are away from home. It's open to the public at a very cheap ticket price of just a couple of quid.

Before the performance, we were all rather worried as we did not have enough on-site rehearsal time. We were making changes to our act right up to the start of the show to accommodate minor on-stage details. We didn't have a single run without errors. However, everything held together simply because of the amount of regular practice time that we've had all this while. We didn't make any noticeable screw-ups.

Immediately after the performance, the crowd was wowed. I got complimented on my drumming by various people. Both people I knew and people I didn't would walk up to me and tell me that my drumming was good. Well, this has certainly made me a little happier, considering that I was a little under the weather at the time.

Personally, I wanted to know what they meant by "my drumming was good". After analysing some short video clips of my drumming, I've come to realise that I drum quite fast. Sort of at a presto rather than an allegro. However, seeing that I lack practice, I would quite often miss out on hitting a few beats but these are all covered up by the cymbals and gong. In conclusion, I would say that my drumming can be better still, with a little more practice.

Since we didn't manage to get a video of our performance, I'll leave this blog with a video of another performance on the same night. My friend sent me the link She's the one dacing in the centre. Her mum was very complimentary of my drumming too. Bless her!