The Chinese Lion Dance Club at Cal State Monterey Bay is striving to bring more performances to students in the coming semesters. Through their work with the Monterey Bay Lion Dance Team, they create an opportunity to promote community and educate students about Chinese culture.
The club was reborn in 2023, with their renewal working in tandem with the Lion Dance Team. Through the team, the club has had the opportunity to perform in a variety of places like weddings and the Northridge Mall.
These performances consist of dancing and percussion with competition style beats holding stories that coincide with each celebration they are performing.
Despite this, on average they only perform on campus twice a year.
“We have not danced too much with the school but we are trying to work on that more. This is our third year on campus after the break, so we need to build up our connections and growth,” said Cable Bronte, Chinese Lion Dance Club president. “We practice once a week at the school and anyone in the club is able to join the team.”
The Lion Dance Team is a non-profit organization in Monterey that is formed by locals – who are willing to volunteer their time to practice and perform. The club interacts with the team through practices, once or twice a week at the Japanese American Citizens League.
“The team are mentors to the club, we are even able to keep a steady style because our mentors pass down those styles to the club,” said Lisa Corpuz the president of the Monterey Bay Lion Dance Team. “The club is a good outlet since lion dancing gets harder and harder as you get older, it is for a younger population.”
During practices, the executive director of the Monterey Bay Lion Dance Team, Kryn Corpuz walks through the beats for new members when they join. She introduces them to the beats they use most commonly in their performances, giving them a way to practice through chants and claps.
The team members demonstrate the beats for the cymbals and gong that are used in the performance to the new members but all members will have the opportunity to learn the drums and the dancing positions as they continue to come to meetings.
“I joined because I wanted to dance. I love dancing but I stayed because of the community, we are all so close knit,” said Alan Hilalgo, a third year environmental science major. “And I am learning a whole new culture, which is awesome like I never knew about all this stuff.”
After the beats are shown at practice, club members stretch and prepare for their upcoming performance; their most recent being in celebration of Lunar New Year. Before then, new members are told the story that the lion goes through in the performance. In this case, the lion is climbing up a mountain to give the audience a blessing.
Cultural traditions and beliefs are engrained into the art form, channeled through performers and gifted to their audiences.
“I got to go with Kyrin and Lisa to get the new lion for the team, it is lemonade pink and pretty, I was excited to go because it is the first time I get to dance under the lion for the Doting ceremony,” said Isabella Chan, vice president of the Lion Dance Club. “It is cool because it happens to new lions, so it feels like having a new car.”
The Doting ceremony takes place every time a new lion is bought as it brings the lion to life. Every lion that is danced with has a soul, that soul is transferred through this ceremony where they use red ink to draw on the eyes and various other body parts. Then praying and giving an offering, which brings down the soul of a lion into the costume.
“With Lion Dance, I want to be connected to my culture and build community with this cool dance and fluffy lion,” said Chan. “We are collabing with APIA (Asian Pacific Islander America) and APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) center, in hopes that we can bring more performances to the school and to share culture.”