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| Dragon Dance |
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2004-07-14 10:08:32
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Dragon dances are the most spectacular dances performed at New year. Chinese consider dragons to be friendly and helpful creatures associated with strength, good fortune, wisdom and longevity. These creatures inhabit every body of water as well as rain and are linked to the Pearl of Knowledge. The longer the dragon, the more luck it will bring to the community. As a result, communities strive to have very long dragons dancing during the New Year. Some dragons are so long that they require twenty or thirty people to hold up the tail!
The Dragon is a composite of diverse creatures. It has horns of a stag, eyes of a demon, scales of fish, claws of an eagle, footpads of a tiger, ears of a bull and whiskers of a cat. The Dragon‘s golden spine often blazes with spangles in the sunlight and may be wired to provide its own glow at night.
The Dragon‘s robe which cloaks the dancer has three tiers. Starting from top down, the golden yellow represents the earth, fiery red with sequin flames, and ocean blue appliquéd with sequined waves and strewn every few feet with sequin dragon gates. The length of the dragon varies from 9 to 24 sections long, each section measuring from about 5-6 and 1/2 feet.
Dragon dances may be performed during the day or at night. If performed at night, someone will carry a blazing torch to illuminate the start of the procession. Drums, cymbals and gongs are parts of the Dragon Dance competitions. The drummer acts as conductor and sets the rhythm for other instrument players to follow. As the drummer beats faster, the ensemble also beat faster and louder. Drum-rolls and gongs may be heard from New Year day all the way to the 15th day.
During the dance, the Dragon may try to catch money offered by spectators. Larger amount of money is usually held higher. But it is bad luck to hold the money out of reach. When money is held very high, as when offered from upstairs window, performers may stand on one another‘s shoulders to "climb walls."
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