Lion dance can be an Olympic sport one day

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MIRI: The traditional Chinese lion dance can someday be included in the Olympic Games, given sufficient push and effort to globalise it.

This traditional performing art has been stapled to the Chinese culture for thousands of years, and is an important part of many Chinese festivals and ceremonies.

“Like the Chinese martial art, wushu, lion dance is also pushing to be accepted as one of the sport events in Olympics,” said a Chinese lion dance competition judge Siow Ho Phiew, after a two-hour seminar for lion dance troupes members in Imperial Hotel here yesterday morning. Siow described lion dance as a combination of sport, tradition, and art in near-equal proportions, adding that, for it to be accepted into the Olympic, it has to focus more on the sport aspects.

“One important criteria for the inclusion into Olympic Games is it must be a sport or game enjoyed and played by a majority of countries.

“This in turn would allow competitions to be carried out with sufficient participants from various countries taking part to vie for the Olympic medals,” said Siow, who came from Kuala Lumpur to enlighten about 80 or more lion dance members from Sarikei, Bintulu, Miri, and Brunei.

“In order to achieve that, people from around the world must enjoy the sport and the traditionally lengthy dance moves need to be shortened to suit the sporting arena due to the time constraints.”

“In fact, we already have Malaysians from all three main races of Malays, Chinese, and Indians taking part in lions dance as a sport event.”

“Next year, we will be welcoming foreigners from Spanish-speaking countries, who will be coming to Malaysia to learn more about lions dance from us, so that they can return to teach their people,” he said.

Lion dance is not just about donning the lion dance costumes and prancing around to entertain the audience, but also involves choreographing the moves in sync with the beat of drums.

In a typical lion dance competition, marks will be given or deducted by a panel of five main judges, with assistance from another five or more referees, who will be observing every move carefully.

“To obtain full marks, one must show sincerity like neatness and manners in the moves. For example, you cannot show your butts or kick your feet at the audience, which are moves showing impoliteness.”

“To get the near-perfect score of 9.9 is not impossible, but not easy, as it requires breakthrough performances from dancers,” he replied earlier to questions from the floor during a Q&A session after the
seminar.

For good performances, he stressed on the dancers’ alertness for they cannot afford to make a mistake or slip in their moves, which cannot be corrected without penalty.

Although there are
many styles, lion dancers are still expected to observe traditions in local competitions, and not dilute it with other innovations like incorporating Western or other non-Chinese traditional music.

“It’s definitely possible for lion dance to become an Olympic sport one day, but it will take time to evolve,” he added.

The Imperial-Boulevard Traditional Lion Dance Championship 2010, organised by Boulevard Group of Companies in collaboration with SUPP Miri, saw eight teams qualified for the finals in Imperial Mall yesterday night.