Gets Real: Local kung fu club welcomes Year of the Dragon with traditional lion dance

SEATTLE — It’s been a full week of Lunar New Year celebrations welcoming the Year of the Dragon!

To bring good fortune, a local kung fu club is fighting off bad spirits through the tradition of lion dance.

“It dates back centuries ago to really just warding off evil,” said Han Eckelberg, who is an Instructor at Mak Fai Kung Fu Dragon & Lion Dance Association. “But nowadays it also is a fostering of, you know, bringing families together, welcoming, joyous celebrations.”

It’s an ancient art form that Mak Fai Kung Fu Dragon has been bringing to Seattle since 1974. In the Year of the Dragon, they’re celebrating 50 years of bringing martial arts and lion dance to the Puget Sound.

“[Grandmaster] Mak Hin Fai and what he’s started ever since, way back then. And seeing what we’ve done then all the way to now,” Eckelberg explained.

It’s the story behind this Lunar New Year tradition that caught Eckelberg’s attention when he was just 5 years old.

“I just became really impressed by the dancing and also by the significance to our culture,” he added. “You want to make sure you can embody the spirit of the lion, but when you’re inside it, you get to make those little interactions.”

But it’s the bright, colorful costumes and magnificent masks that turn heads.

“This one right here is the Fut San style. With this curved mouth, more of these aggressive features… traced back to a lot of traditional martial arts form, a more comfortable practice,” Eckelberg explained. “We have the Hok San style with ties to Malaysia.”

“This is more like that rounded bill,” he continued. “When you dance this style of lion, it’s very playful, very soft.”

Each lion head has its own history and home country. They take months to handcraft and some of them date back decades. But what’s really stood the test of time, is the spirit that’s captivated crowds for centuries through choreography.

“The lion would be as one, so we have to have coordination with the head expression to the tail,” said lion dancer Johnny Nguyen. “So the head and tail need to be together to put the whole expression on the lion.”

Nguyen and Martin Lau work hand in hand – literally! They’ve been lion dance partners for five years, but friends for much longer than that.

“Someone you can, like, basically depend on the trust already there when you first join,” said Nguyen. “So it makes everything much easier.”

With time and trust, they’ve learned to perform as one.

“Since I’m the tail, I can barely see where I’m going on the poles,” said Lau. “So the only time I get to see the poles is when I lift them up.”

“I get the full view for like maybe two seconds, and then I just have to go for it so as to be pretty quick,” she continued.

He’s the base of the lion, the hind legs that carry the back end of the weight.

The lion dance is both dazzling and deliberate, but it wouldn’t be complete without a beat.

“The drum is the heartbeat of the lion,” said drummer John To. “Without the drum, the lion would just be dancing to nothing.”

Being at the center of the performance is a rewarding experience for To, but it takes the team to bring the lion dance to life.

If you’d like to catch the shows in person, there’s still time! Here’s Mak Fai Kung Fu Dragon & Lion Dance Association’s full schedule for the month.

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