Dancing Style

[ryanthelion]

I am curios to ask the community if there has been a style developed that is specific to modern futshan heads.
I am not referring to strictly traditional movements but some sort of blend between contemporary and traditional stances and head movements.
An example of what i have in mind is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT10OoXD3gE

because of it's use of the futshan head. Has anyone out there been trying to develop a style that is different than the hokshan movements?
If no one has done it I think it would be great if someone could create something so we could have more variety in the lion dancing world and save the futshan head design (since everyone is switching to hokshans). Maybe I am biased because I have Cantonese roots and I don't want our curved lipped heads to go extinct.

-Ryan

[ctyee]

Hok san is becoming the primary style of lion dance for many schools but there are still out there that do fut san lion dancing. Now you are asking has anyone developed style that has mixed the two together, and the answer is yes. Schools have developed styles that mix both fut san and hok san roots in their style. Now fut san is known for it's power the fierceness and hok san is known for how lively the lion looks. So the schools who mix the two styles primarily want the power of fut san and the liveliness in hok san. I'm not sure if there is a particular style for it but just to let you know there are lions that mix fut san and hok san charateristics, these lions are called fut hok. The idea of this lion was to have the fierce of fut san but also to have the gentleness of a hok san lion. Now modern fut san lions are more like fut hok lions since the fur is now fluffier and everything but the horn is still pointed and the mouth is still curved. The fut hok lions still have a curved mouth but it's less curved than a fut sans' mouth. So I'm not sure if i really answered your question but many traditionally fut san schools try to incorporate hok san since it is something a lot of people enjoy since it looks a lot more real. Also audience members who do not understand traditional lion dancing enjoy the hok san better since it looks less strange to them than hok san; also that hok san is cuter and gentler. So yea, I'm not sure if i really answered your question again but you can keep asking questions and i'll do my best to answer them.

[lionarts]

I came across FutHock Origins once ago. Why did futhock exist? it is because those days, Hoksan teaching is very restricted and can't be spread to any one who is not an official student of the hoksan school. Since those days, Many has been facinated by hoksan lions and its teaching. But the problem is, many don't know and have no chance to understand the move and the meaning behind hoksan dancing. So many just learn from what they observe and imitate them blindly. During early days, People in this field are mostly martial arts practitioner and they have strong ego in them self. So when feel so fascinated about the hoksan style and so called "other people's knowledge" they want to do the same thing, But any one today who has a hoksan back ground knows very well that every moves has its own meaning behind. So when you tend to imitate some other peoples knowledge or style but without knowing the real meaning, You will obviously get challenge and critics. So, Being ego and do not want people to challenge and critics, they merge these 2 lions and make it one of a kind. It has the hoksan looks but when genuine hoksan practitioners come into challenge, there is a debate point where they can tell them " no I'm not doing Hoksan, I'm doing a very own style called Futhock" That is how it actually begun. So actually is the passion for hoksan lion but it was so restricted but they want to learn it so much and at the end they fear of getting challenges... so they came out with this solution

[ryanthelion]

Hok san is becoming the primary style of lion dance for many schools but there are still out there that do fut san lion dancing. Now you are asking has anyone developed style that has mixed the two together, and the answer is yes. Schools have developed styles that mix both fut san and hok san roots in their style. Now fut san is known for it's power the fierceness and hok san is known for how lively the lion looks. So the schools who mix the two styles primarily want the power of fut san and the liveliness in hok san. I'm not sure if there is a particular style for it but just to let you know there are lions that mix fut san and hok san charateristics, these lions are called fut hok. The idea of this lion was to have the fierce of fut san but also to have the gentleness of a hok san lion. Now modern fut san lions are more like fut hok lions since the fur is now fluffier and everything but the horn is still pointed and the mouth is still curved. The fut hok lions still have a curved mouth but it's less curved than a fut sans' mouth. So I'm not sure if i really answered your question but many traditionally fut san schools try to incorporate hok san since it is something a lot of people enjoy since it looks a lot more real. Also audience members who do not understand traditional lion dancing enjoy the hok san better since it looks less strange to them than hok san; also that hok san is cuter and gentler. So yea, I'm not sure if i really answered your question again but you can keep asking questions and i'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for the responses really good information. For me I think that if fut san and hok san heads are going to be used in the same performance, their different looks should also match a different dancing style. Since Master Siow said good hok san lion dancing should imitate a cat, maybe fut san heads could look more like a dog.

they look a lot like it.
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/0 ... 68x627.jpg

[v1nni3]

ha ha, lovely picture!
but what ctyee was right in audiance menber not understanding the fat san moves. it seems only traditional schools still practice pure fat san and perform during resturant opening and chinese new years because the crowd who uderstandes the moves are there. in the west, hoksan seems more interseting and entertaining to new audiance and kids love it. alot of new group adopt the hak san and fathok style but not traditional fat san because it looks better and more entertaining for there audiance.
i like fat san, it looks supurb but for the new audiance, its not their cup of tea. i've only seen one hung gar group's live performace and seems like the same problem occuring. nothing is at merssy of time and social change.

[ryanthelion]

I agree with everyone on Hok san style looking more appealing. I figure that fut san dancers could update the movements incorporating what is asthetic about hok san and creating a newer updated fut san style while still keeping some of the traditional elements.

Things i would like to update from hok san movements would be,
better expressions
patterns of head movements "triangles and boxes"
more head tail coordination and expressions bounces and patterned movements
new tricks and stunts

Things to keep from the traditional movements,
constant horse stance "no tripods"
powerful explosive movements
high and low alternation during performances.
head raises (but covering faces)

These are just a few of my thoughts

[george]

I think one of the issue of that is restricting the popularity of Fat Shan is the limited amount/vareity of music (& therefore 'moves')as compared to Hok Shan. I remember during the 90's there are very good Fat Shan teams in the Malaysia's Nationals, ie. very strong/fast movements, low stances, distinct fast & slow movements etc...but the variety of music & moves were very few(as were the stunts) & thus making it look very repetitive & less interesting.

[SleepingDragon]

Actually the macau law leung beat is a jazzed up rendition of fat san.