Video Transcript

With Charger Fest just around the corner, the Dragon Dance team is hard at work preparing for their performance. The Dragon Dance showcases diverse cultural traditions within Pin Oak. The sport is all about working together as a team to make this dance come to life.

Jia Chang

“Okay, so the music I selected for the dragon dance is a fusion music. The traditional Chinese dragon dance has a lot of symbols and drums, but I want to bring something more interesting into it. I want to create a story. So, I stitched the different music together. At the beginning, you will hear a waken up music that is actually a fusion between Japanese and Chinese. And, um, so at the beginning you will hear a music wakes the dragon up that is, um, I got it from a very traditional Japanese, uh, music section. And then when we move on to the actual dragon move around, it’s just a traditional Chinese symbols and drums.”

“The dragon dance and lion dance are two very different activities or two very different sports. The lion dance has a lot of acrobatic movement in there. But the dragon dance is more emphasizing on teamwork. So, like our Pin Oak, we have a dragon which is about 13 meters long. It is a very long dragon and it’s as long as those you see which are done by the professional dragon dancers. So, in order to make a 13 meter long dragon dance, you need a lot of coordination between the players.”

“Okay, so the three key position in a dragon dance is the dragon head and the pearl goat, who is considered to be the leader for the whole dragon dance team, and the dragon tail. Of course, every role in the dragon dance team is important because we all need to work together as a team.

The pearl girl, who is considered to be the leader, she holds a pearl ball in her hand and the dragon is going to follow the lead of the pearl. So, if you know the Chinese mythology, dragons have a thing. They like to chase a shining glittering ball. Normally it’s a gemstone or it’s a pearl. So, the Chinese dragon dance is based on that idea that dragon likes to follow the pearl. That’s why they use the pearl as the leader to take the dragon wherever the dragon wants to go.”

Ruby Diego

“My experience as a dragon dancer, it’s really fun. Um, the dragon is kind of heavy, but it’s okay cuz you know, it’s kind of worth it. I think maybe when we’re in the loop, um, after all the people jump out, it’s like the last three people and I’m like the third to last. So, jumping out is kind of hard cuz I have to like flip the um dragon tail at the end midair. Um, I coordinate myself by like um I see how the people like in front of me do it and then I kind of like take after them. But like when we’re doing um the number eight um I go a little after the person in front of me.”

We would like to thank Miss Chang and Ruby Diego for their thoughts. See you next time, Chargers.