Singapore Lion Dance Performances 2010

When and Where to Watch These Leaping Lions

Video: Performance by Yi Wei Athletic Association
Singapore Lion Dance Championship 2008

Highly Recommended!

Singapore National Lion Dance Championship 2010

When:
Evenings, 6-12 Sep 2010

Where:
Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City Shopping Centre

What:
Gravity-defying stunts by the best lion dance troupes in Singapore

Schedule of Singapore Lion Dance Performances

Chinese New Year 2010

14-16 Feb 2010, 11am & 3pm: Singapore Discovery Centre
16 Feb 2010, 3pm - 3.30pm: Singapore Philatelic Museum
17 Feb 2010, 1.30pm: Suntec City Mall (Tropics Atrium)
19, 20 Feb 2010: Chingay Parade 2010
22 Feb 2010, 12pm: Vivo City Mall (Central Court)

Singapore Lion Dance Championship (Zonal & National)

Zonal Competitions (July-August 2010)

Venues & Dates:

West Coast Community Centre (2 Clementi West St 2):
3 July 2010 (7-10pm), 4 July 2010 (6-10pm)

Kaki Bukit Community Centre (670 Bedok North St 3):
10 July 2010 (7-10pm), 11 July 2010 (1-5pm, 7-10pm)

Taman Jurong Community Club (1 Yung Sheng Road):
31 July 2010 (7-10pm), 1 August 2010 (1-5pm, 7-10pm)

National Championships (Sep 2010)

Dates: Evenings, 6-12 Sep 2010.

Venue: Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, Orchard Road.

Chinese Lion Dance Culture in Singapore:
It is More Serious Than You Think!

Make time for the annual Singapore Lion Dance Championship. And you'll realise that there're more breath-taking stunts than Shaolin Temple.

These stunts are practised every evening all over Singapore. In the backyards of temples. In the gyms of community centres. In the parade squares of schools. And in many other places. In these unglamourous corners, hundreds of youths punish themselves severely in hope of a single reward: a place in the finals of the Singapore Lion Dance Championships. And who can blame them?

I first saw this love for chinese lion dance when I was teaching in a secondary school in Hougang.

A couple of my students were pretty uninterested in their studies. But they would never, ever miss a single lion dance practice, whether these were on weekdays or during prime-time weekends.

One day, they got onto the wrong side of the law. And their lion dance teacher suspended them from lion dance practices.

Boy! You should have seen the agony on their faces! These boys would have eaten cockroaches. They would have crawled through mud. And they would have barked like dogs. If that's what it takes to get back on the lion dance troupe!

Watch the video above. Listen carefully, and you'll notice a few young boys going 'ooh' and 'ah' in the background. These young boys will one day become leaping lions themselves. And they all started by watching these incredible athletes float from pole to pole. The future of Singapore Lion Dance is safe.