|
Saturday February 15, 2003 Lantern Festival (15th Day of Chinese New Year) Martial Artistry kung fu family and friends gathered to celebrate the new Year of the Ram with feasting, games and a wushu exhibition at our school. (right) Team Steel Phoenix waits for its cue. |
|
||
 |
Of course, no Chinese New Year Celebration would
be complete without lion and dragon dancing, accompanied by the pounding of
drums and the clash of gong and cymbals. Those are lion dancers Brian
Baker and Erich Vera as Li, our yellow lion, and Diana Ma and James Esparza
and Piao Liang, our flower-faced lion.
(left) Two of our lions, Li and Piao Liang, stack high in the air. Quite the impressive sight! |
||
| Our dragon, Mushu, delighted the crowd as always, coiling as he rode the sky, chasing the celestial pearl of wisdom. |
|
||
 |
The wushu and kung fu exhibitions, by both our
own students and our special guest stars, brought much applause. (left) National Champion Chris Baca and Reserve National Champion Monique Cordova wield the Mandarin Duck Razors. |
||
| Special Guest Star Jake Burroughs (right) demonstrates a traditional kung fu mantis form. |
|
Martial Artistry Team Steel Phoenix member, State Champion James Cole (right), executes a wushu ditangquan back flip. Just look at the air on that technique! |
|
|
|
Everyone pulled out all the stops, working up an
appetite for the big feast afterward.
(left) Reserve National Champion Monique Cordova, Junior Instructor's Aide Alex Daniels and Kristine Dang pull their foot behind their head in skyward kick with sole -- because of its difficulty, a rarely seen wushu skill. |
||
|
Some of our entertainers, however, didn't want to
wait for their meal. Here, Li (right) is tempted by
lettuce (dangling from the pole) in the Choy Ching ("Get the Ching")
lion dance. Those are Gold Medallist Diana Ma and Instructor's Aide James Esparza playing Li, Robert Erich Vera with the lettuce, and Kip Barkhurst as the Naughty Monk. |
|
||
|
|
Never get between a lion and its lettuce. Drummer Kyra Gryphon and Gong Girl Alex Daniels get a laugh out of Kip's predicament. | ||
| Some want lettuce, and some want wisdom. Here's another shot of Mushu, in hot pursuit of that elusive pearl. |
 |
||
|
(right) Albuquerque's own National Champion and Martial Artistry Assistant Instructor Chris Baca walks on his hands -- first forward, then backwards! |
|
(right) Instructor's Aide and Lion Dancer Kip Barkhurst is about to lose his hat to Li in the Choy Ching lion dance. |
|
 |
(left) Ann Marie Palmieri executes a front walkover -- not really a martial arts technique, but still a good test of flexibility, leg and back strength -- each essential to kung fu. | ||
|
(right) Yuk! Alex! That girl is like a rubber band. James Esparza holds her aloft, while Reserve National Champion Monique Cordova and Kristine Dang split in the background. |
|
||
|
|
(left) Senior Student Amir Shirkhorshidian tornado kicks with staff in a modern wushu weapons form. No doubt about it -- this guy has got kung fu! | ||
| (right) Another photo from the contortionist routine. You just gotta wonder if these girls weren't born without bones... |
 |
||
 |
(left) National Champion Chris Baca does some ground-rolling technique in the shuangdao, or double sabre, routine. Chris learned his first shuangdao form in China, from the monks of the Shaolin Temple. Since then, Sifu's taught him a few more nifty wushu techniques, like this one. | ||
|
(right) Li does the drunken
step in the Drunken Lion Dance. Our Naughty Monk, Kip Barkhurst
doesn't seem to be having much luck with standing, let alone stepping. That's Lion Dance Team Leader and Gold Medallist Diana Ma playing Li's head, while Sparky Esparza "brings up the rear". |
|
||
|
|
(left) Li tries to figure out just what the heck that strange monk is up to. | ||
|
(right) The lions circle,
forming the yin-yang symbol. Piao Liang (multi-colored, left)
elevates her head above Li's (yellow, right) to
display her senior status. As the elder lion -- note her white beard
compared to Li's red -- she is the dominant lion of the two.
(below) After the show, the audience gathered to feed the lions lucky money. Haoqi was very popular, as everyone wanted to feed the brand-new baby lion. |
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
(left) Special Guest
Star Jake Burroughs draws from the jar to see what lucky person will win the
much coveted wooden carved dragon from Malaysia. As you can see, great caution was applied to guarantee a fair drawing. James Cole (rear) donated his sash -- and his rather questionable blindfolding skills. I think you'll all agree that James had better stick to wushu. Lion Dance Drummer Kyra Gryphon holds the container with the names. Whose will Jake draw? |
||
|
(right) Assistant Instructor
and Steel Phoenix co-leader Jason Padilla won this year's carved dragon --
thanks to his brother, Johnathan. Jason is an avid collector of dragons, and, in an insane moment of brotherly love, Johnathan Padilla put Jason's name on one of his tickets. The gods must have smiled upon such a selfless act, since that very ticket was the one picked by Jake. One thing for sure, Jason was certainly pleased!
(below) After the rest of the festivities it was time for the traditional string tag craziness. Here, the guests get into a rousing game of monkey string tag, where running, leaping, flipping and rolling are all allowed -- but only on all fours! |
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
String tag is played (in our case) by securing
strings to the floor with Velcro (other options on other surfaces include
tape, staves, chalk lines -- use your imagination).
(left) More monkey string tag. Here, James Esparza used deception to evade his opponent, turning about and leaping over Bryan at the last moment -- much to the delight of the other players, who are always very vocal about cheering an especially cunning move. |
||
|
Both the chasers and the chased must run along
those lines, which brings strategy, agility, timing and awareness -- all
very important to kung fu -- into play.
(right) Kip Barkhurst shows the entire internet community his "best side" as he gives Johnathan Padilla a lift in piggyback string tag. Smile, Kip, you're on candid camera! |
|
||
|
|
One must use timing and agility to hug those
sharp corners, lest the other players call foul and the offender
automatically be declared "it". As for strategy and awareness, the player must avoid being driven into dead ends, bottlenecks or zigzags where the "it" can reach over a corner to tag them.
(left) Alex Daniels, aboard James "Sparky" Esparza, reaches out to tag Jonathan Elkin, being carried by Polina Pfliger. |
||
|
Just keeping track of who you should be running
from takes a sharp eye and keen attention. (right) Polina and Jonathan turn the tables on lion dancer Diana Ma and her little niece, Athena Derricotte. Diana's got somewhat of a weight advantage, there. In the background, Brian Baker and Nicole Neff consider their next move, while Jenna McSween and Charlotte Davis-Sparks head for the hills. We're buying Athena spurs and a crop for next year's event. Yee-HAH!!! See you then! |
|
||
|
Questions? Comments?
|
|||
