Kung Fu Fire Dance

On August Moon I performed my wheels on the bus Kung Fu as a real form, because I hope to start teaching older kids how to do this in the fall. And I cannot teach something if I haven't done it myself. What I realized however is that to get up there in front of all those people and free style a form like that, well, you either have to have the natural ability to do this, or you have to be a master already. Which defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do. The goal of my wheels on the bus idea is that you see it, and automatically you can do it. I have taught at many schools where most of the audience does not Kung Fu and young children and teenagers can actually do the simplest version of the moves, as a group, seeing me do it just once. However, that doesn't mean they would want to do it themselves. And the whole, "follow me" format, where a group is just doing exactly what I am doing, with or thought foot work, is not my goal. In any case it's been done.

Watch 1:10 of this trailer from The Hidden Fortress.

I tried to find the full fire festival scene. But it isn't up there yet. If you have it, please upload it! Anyway, I thought also that if I did have a large group of students, that it would also be a waste of time to have us Kung Fu on a stage one at a time. What would my ideal Kung Fu Festival look like? I guess it would look like that Fure festival at 1:10 or actually maybe it starts at 1:08, in the clip. Except instead of the dance moves they are doing, they would be doing wheels on the bus. Into the fire for four beats Out for four beats, at the same time slowly circling. Maybe every time you change direction you change animals. That would be the short version. The long version would you don't switch animals until you go all the way around the fire.

Imagine that! Then "Practice" would be more like clubbing, in that you work out in a group in a fun dance. And that could take about a couple hours. And you could pick it up simply by doing it. Yes you could take classes, but you could just show up to the fire dance. Of course for us in the city perhaps a fire is not such a good idea. Maybe a May Pole or  some other thing could be in the middle. Perhaps the drums.

What do the dance moves look like? Probably the large motion kicks I did at August moon would not be a good idea. (I have shared that clip on my other blog Cheung Family Kung Fu) But the simpler motions that can be more easily controlled. Actually you could do the spin kick too if you just use your knee and everyone does it at the same time. Maybe that could be every time you jump away from the fire.

Sounds like quite a work out! But I'm sure people would be more able and willing to do it like that, in a group, than as an individual. And of course after doing that for a while, some individuals will do something themselves, perhaps in the middle where the fire would not be, again because we are in a city.