Lion dance and dragon dance are traditional dancing techniques usually done in festive celebrations in Vietnam, such as shop grand opening or the Lunar New Year festival, which began last week. As their names suggest, lion dancers, donning lion costumes, mimic the movements of the animal to bring good luck and fortune, whereas dragon dancers manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along its length. Dancers are usually kung fu practitioners so as to afford the strength and skill needed for the performances, which explains why female followers of the techniques are rare. Every dancer has to practice a hundred times to master the skill. Photo: Tuoi Tre Tu Anh Duong, a lion and dragon dance school based in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, stands out as the only of its kind to have both the male and female troupes. The female team consists of 22 members, with the youngest just turning ten, and the oldest being 35 years old. While all team members are capable of performing both dragon and lion dances, five of them are Vietnamese record holders in high-pole and pole-climbing lion dances, the two most difficult techniques. These high-pole lion dancers are usually skillful practitioners of the kung fu style Meihua Quan, literally known as Plum Blossom Boxing, which allows them to perform jaw-dropping stunts on a row of poles, standing one to three meters high and located 0.7-1.8 meters apart from one another. In the pole-climbing… [Read full story]
When the strength, wit and humanity of Vietnamese women make them the heroines of modern life. 1. The iron female soldiers To what extent can a Vietnamese woman showcase her physical strength? A recent video in March answered the question for us. Female soldiers from Vietnam’s First Special Force Group can smash bricks, bend iron spears with their necks and take sledgehammers to the stomach. If war-time heroines are ever forgotten, these ladies are right here to remind you not to mess around with Vietnamese women. 2. The first all-female flight crew While Air India’s all-female crew marked history on…... [read more]
When the strength, wit and humanity of Vietnamese women make them the heroines of modern life. 1. The iron female soldiers To what extent can a Vietnamese woman showcase her physical strength? A recent video in March answered the question for us. Female soldiers from Vietnam’s First Special Force Group can smash bricks, bend iron spears with their necks and take sledgehammers to the stomach. If war-time heroines are ever forgotten, these ladies are right here to remind you not to mess around with Vietnamese women. 2. The first all-female flight crew While Air India’s all-female crew marked history on…... [read more]
Two lions shook their heads, wagged their tails, and danced to the boisterous drum beats before making a technically demanding maneuver. The dancers, who are just as agile and supple as those in their prime, turned out to be elderly women, including those in their 70s and 80s, who already have grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. The women regularly rehearse in the yard of one of the members’ homes in Giong Trom District in Ben Tre Province. They are members of the well-known Luong Hoa female lion dance troupe, which was formed thirty-four years ago. The lion dance is a form…... [read more]
Over a dozen elderly women, including octogenarians, in a Mekong Delta province have incorporated their wartime toughness into their lion dance performances over the past three decades. Two lions shook their heads, wagged their tails, and danced to the boisterous drum beats before making a technically demanding maneuver. The dancers, who are just as agile and supple as those in their prime, turned out to be elderly women, including those in their 70s and 80s, who already have grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. The women regularly rehearse in the yard of one of the members’ homes in Giong Trom District in…... [read more]
Over a dozen elderly women, including octogenarians, in a Mekong Delta province have incorporated their wartime toughness into their lion dance performances over the past three decades. The dancers, who are just as agile and supple as those in their prime, turned out to be elderly women, including those in their 70s and 80s, who already have grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, reported Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. The women regularly rehearse in the yard of one of the members’ homes in Giong Trom district in Ben Tre province. They are members of the well-known Luong Hoa female lion dance troupe, which…... [read more]
