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It all started when Mok-Yi IMed Andy one day in July 2002 and asked,
"Hey Andy, interested in doing lion dance?"
And just like that, East Rising was born.
The East Rising Lion Dance Troupe is a non-profit lion dance troupe located in Maryland . The majority of the troupe members are second generation Asian-Americans between the ages of 14 to 28. Our troupe has been very fortunate to have a lot of support since its inception from local troupes from other states and countries. We have been steadily growing and are still striving to achieve our goal:
To learn about lion dancing, to promote Asian cultural awareness, and to bring good fortune and joy to people who have experienced our show!
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For the first half year, we couldn't afford a lion head. All we had was an old drum, an old gong, a pair of old dragon cymbals, and whatever folding chairs we found laying around. Dispite the lack of equipments, the troupe has gathered once every week to practice and condition our body, in preparation of the big day when we finally get our first lion head.
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With no way of fund-raising (it was winter), we finally just bit the bullet and bought our very first lion out of pocket. We were all very excited yet nervous with the purchase... there was no turning back! With the brand new lion, we had to relearn everything. Everything we could do perfectly was a challange with the bulky head, it was exciting yet frustrating at the same time. Now that we had our first lion, we got greedy and started towards puchasing a new instrument set and aimed for another lion. For that, we scrubbed many, many, many cars.
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Since our troupe does not have an instructor, we relied heavily on videos, written descriptions, and online instructions from lion dancers around the world. There are some great people and troupe that helped us out locally, and there are people across the globe that really helped us grow. Even one that flew out here to give us lessons! We are also very thankful for the people that requested a show, especially for believing that such a young team can deliver a high impact performance.
As of now, East Rising Lion Dance Troupe is growing steadily having performed 53 shows; as our experience and reputation grow, we remain firm in our believe:
To educate ourselves about lion dancing, to promote Asian Culture awareness, and to bring good fortune and joy to people who have experienced our show!
| Performance Name | Date | Description |
| Hakka Dinner Banquet | 2/10/2007 | Another CNY with Hakka Association. They keep getting bigger and bigger! |
| Caren House Christmas Dinner | 12/17/2006 | Caren House Senior Center held a Christmas Dinner and we were there to celebrate! |
| Mormon Temple 2006 | 4/30/2006 | Back to the great Mormon Temple for another year! |
| Georgetown Asiafest | 4/9/2006 | We were invited to join Georgetown's Asiafest, where all the Asian Clubs got together and put on a great show! |
| New Fortune - Farewell Dinner for Father Tsau | 2/26/2006 | We performed for Father Tsau at the church's farewell dinner to him, thanking him for the years he spent with us! |
| Potomac Library 2006 | 2/25/2006 | Potomac Library for another year! |
| Hua Fu Chinese School | 2/5/2006 | We were invited back to Hua Fu Chinese School to celebrate Chinese New Year together! |
| Lakeforest Mall - Omei Wushu | 2/5/2006 | Another show opening for Omei Wushu's demo. |
| Strip Mall 2006 | 2/4/2006 | On top of the regular stores, we also performed for the two big Asian Super Markets; it was fun! |
| Lakeforest Mall - Omei Wushu | 1/29/2006 | We were the opening for Omei Wushu's Lakeforest demo! |
| Club Love | 1/28/2006 | This year we were invited to Club Love to help kick off the Chinese New Year! |
| Church Dinner | 1/28/2006 | Home crowd celebration is indeed the best! |
| Hakka Dinner Banquet | 1/21/2006 | Hakka organization invited us back to celebrate Chinese New Year with them. |
| Virginia Governor Inaugration Parade | 1/14/2006 | It was a wet and muddy day in Willimsburg, but East Rising joined the "Asian Fortune" group and put on a show! |
| Omei Wushu School Grand Opening | 1/7/2006 | Omei Wushu is opening a new location in Rockville, East Rising was there to help celebrate the happy occasion! |
| UMCP Taiwanese Night Market | 5/7/2005 | TASA threw a great night market together, there was a sea of people! |
| Twin Oaks | 4/30/2005 | For the first time, we performed in a mansion with carpted floor for the Taiwanese Ambassador's wife and guests. |
| Mormon Temple 2005 | 4/30/2005 | Also a treat performing for the Morman Temple! |
| American University | 4/23/2005 | Although not a huge crowd, it is always great to perform for AU! We discovered that a picture from our last year's performance was enlarged and framed in the cafeteria! How awesome is that? |
| Thai Temple - Thai New Year | 4/17/2005 | A huge show for us, it was wonderful parading and performing in front of thousands of people at a huge community event! |
| UMCP Cultural Explosion 2005 | 4/14/2005 | It would seem like all the Cultural Explosions shows we did got random objects flying out… this time a lion tail! |
| UMBC ASIA 2005 | 4/8/2005 | Need to support our home school! This time Simba brought Nala along for the fun! |
| UMCP VSA Family Night 2005 | 2/19/2005 | Back to UMCP's VSA Family Night for another year! |
| Club Fur | 2/13/2005 | One of the wildest experience performing lion dance! The crowd was phenominal! |
| Taiwanese Banquet | 2/13/2005 | A HUGE Taiwanese banquet at New Fortune. |
| Hua Fu Chinese School Dinner | 2/13/2005 | We are invited back to share Chinese New Year with Hua Fu Chinese School. |
| Stripe Mall 2005 | 2/12/2005 | We visited the six stores again, this time there were more greens hanging from the ceiling! |
| Potomac Library | 2/7/2005 | We're back performing for the kids at the Potomac Library! |
| Church New Year Dinner | 2/5/2005 | Also fun to perform for a home crowd! |
| Lakeforest Mall Opening | 2/5/2005 | One of our biggest show for the Chinese New Year. We were the opening act to kick off the two week long celebration at Lakeforest Mall! |
| UMCP International Night Dinner 2005 | 1/30/2005 | Another year. This time we tried the black light with pretty good result! |
| Hakka Dinner Banquet | 1/29/2005 | Performance for Hakka Tribe's Chinese New Year celebration banquet. |
| Chinese Womens League | 12/5/2004 | The ladies stepped it up and all of them were lion heads for this show, in order to show respects to our hosting organization! |
| Chinese Dance | 11/28/2004 | We were the opening act for my sister's Chinese dance troupe performance. |
| Andy's Grandparents' Birthday Dinner | 8/17/2004 | Andy's grandparents' dinner, and we put our new instruments to use after learning the parts for... five days. Slowly getting there! |
| Stepahie Tong's Wedding | 7/3/2004 | Our first wedding show. It was a wonderful experience and we wish the new couples the best of luck! |
| Twin Oak after Dragon Boat 2004 | 5/29/2004 | A really laid back event where all the dragonboat teams gather and have fun; we did a short performance for the event. |
| Mormon Temple APA1 Celebration | 4/26/2004 | The auditorium of the Morman Temple visitor center is NICE, the people that work there are very friendly and the stage is one of the best I have seen… |
| American University APA1 Closing Ceremony | 4/26/2004 | Super last minute performance... had to drag Chris out to learn Apinun's tail part in a day! Pulled through okay, excellent job guys! |
| UMBC International Dinner | 4/21/2004 | Dotting of our second lion "Nala," and first time performing with two lions! |
| UMCP Cultural Explosion | 4/2/2004 | Our first performance at UMCP's CSPAC! Lots of bloopers, but the audience was the best! |
| UMBC ASIA 2004 | 3/13/2004 | ASIA is an event where all the Asian clubs at UMBC gets together and present their culture. |
| UMCP CCC Banquet | 3/2/2004 | For Chinese Culture Club's New Year Banquet. |
| UMCP VSA Family Night | 2/29/2004 | The whole troupe agrees that this is one of our better performances, except for many Kan! |
| Hua Fu Chinese School New Year Dinner | 2/2/2004 | Cafetria performance for Hua Fu Chinese School. |
| Stone Ridge Private Catholic Girl School | 2/2/2004 | Special thanks to Tiffiny and Damon for coming out to help. Uhh, some mishaps but overall an enjoyable experience! |
| Green Tea Café | 1/29/2004 | Performed for Patti's bubble tea café, smaller audience than other locations, but still really fun. |
| Church New Year Banquet | 1/28/2004 | The same night right after Stripe Mall. The whole troupe was spent, but it has always been fun performing for the whole church! |
| Stripe Mall 2004 | 1/28/2004 | We went to a total of six stores at the mall… extremely cold and tiring, but extremely fun! |
| Potomac Library - Kwang-Chi Chinese School | 1/19/2004 | Every year Chinese Schools have programs at Public Libraries to promote Chinese New Year to the general public. |
| UMCP International Night Dinner | 11/19/2003 | Our third performance was at St. Mary, one of our "home court." It was fun performing for college students! |
| Bishop Wong Dinner Party | 11/15/2003 | The first Asian American Bishop -- Bishop Wong is visiting our church, we performed lion dance to welcome him! |
| Lian-Zhan for Taiwanese President Dinner Banquet | 10/19/2003 | Our first performance. We performed for Taiwan's presidental cadidate Lian-Zhan. |