Archive for December, 2006

“In light of the show next month, this Thursday’s class will be at HP in Chinatown. Harry has graciously volunteered to bring pizza for after training. Sifu’s bringing those tasty little oranges, and, of course, you can count on me to bring some leng cha. Cookies and other snackies welcome, as are all students, kids, parents, sweeties, etc”. – LK

Details of the January show will be posted on the calendar soon. – BM

Amen/Raymond and Ricardo/Clement opened the evening with an innovative lion dance involving two huge candy canes. Amen then took over as M.C. The kung fu demonstation was an opportunity for our younger students and for some newer students who have not previously performed. They all did very well.

Ricardo and Leon did not perform during the kung fu demos but did go up for karaoke. Hopefully, they will return to kung fu for the next show.

Linda and Jason performed both kung fu and karaoke… demonstrating lethal technique.

December 8 – we performed a short show of about 12 sets for the Chee Dack society at the Floata restaurant. There were about 300 people in the audience. What made it special for the performers was that we got to eat our post-performance meal in a different part of the restaurant. Rather than talking around the normal high-octane karaoke assault we got to chat over our food.

December 10 – our annual christmas dinner – Simo Jackie Ing arranged for a wonderful buffet. During the meal, we watched highlights of the past year (performances, classes, candid camera shots, photos) in the Ho Brothers latest (and best) production. Afterwards, we went up to the Broadway Church to watch their annual Singing Christmas Tree production.

Here is a brief update of what we’ve been up to for the past few months:

September – about 95 of our members with family and friends attended the Hoy Ping Mid-Autumn Banquet (held at the Flamingo Restaurant) where we performed a lion dance and kung fu show for 600 people. Sifu Ing choreographed a special lion dance routine, “seven stars escort the moon” for the banquet and it was a big hit with the crowd.

October – at the Sam Duck Banquet (held at the Pink Pearl restaurant) we performed both a martial arts demo and a lion dance which featured a flag unveiling ceremony . Included in our show was a guest demonstration of Hung Gar by Sifu Don Gee visiting from San Francisco.

November – an article in the Vancouver Sun (soon to be added to our website) featured discussion with Sifu Jun Ing and included pictures of our lion dancers practicing at the Hoy Ping site. – we participated in the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Benevolent Association with both lion dancing and a 16-set kung fu demonstration on the streets of chinatown.- that same evening we performed the lion dance at the Chinese Benevolent Association anniversary dinner (which included Lt. Gov. Iona Camponoglo and Mayor Sam Sullivan) for 1000 people. Information about our lion dance performance is included in the Lt. Gov.’s website: http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/whatsnew/sp/sp_nov05_2006.htm – this year again our members competed in Jack Wong’s annual Traditional Kung Fu Invitational tournament … congratulations to Linda Kassendy for first place in the Weapons Advance category (perfoming the Deer Horns set) and to Ricardo Ho for second place in the Short Strike Handform category (performing Shaolin #6).

Currently:

Here are some of the sets that are currently being taught: Jeet Kuen, Tam Tui, Cha #5, Lohan Yet Kuen, Long-Handled Halberd, Two-Handed Chopper.

Upcoming events:

December 8 – martial arts performance at the Chee Dack banquet (Floata restaurant on Keefer)

December 10 – our annual Christmas dinner (at the Warehouse) and The Singing Christmas Tree show (Broadway Church next door)

December 16 – Hoy Ping Christmas banquet – lion dancing and martial arts demo (Floata restaurant on Keefer)

Our club is very active, meeting three times per week and performing in over 10 events per year (this year had 16 events). We have over 90 students ranging in age from pre-teen to senior citizen. Our curriculum includes about 200 sets from different northern shaolin styles. So far, over 50 of these sets have been learned by our students. This includes fist sets and many different weapons sets. In addition to staff, sword and broadsword sets, we have sets for exotic weapons like deer horns, tigerhead hook swords, double halberd and chopper.

This blog is intended for both current members and people interested in martial arts/lion dancing. We will be giving brief updates after classes and performances.