Dance Troupe That Combines ‘Ballet with Lion Dance’ Withdraws from Chingay After Drawing Flak

It takes a certain amount of courage to go against conventions. Especially against those with a long and rich history.

Sometimes, the gamble pays off, just like South Korea’s K-Tigers who combined Kpop dances with Taekwondo, the country’s traditional martial arts.

And other times, it fails.

Dance Troupe That Combines ‘Ballet with Lion Dance’ Withdraws from Chingay After Drawing Flak

It’s generally a huge honour to be invited to perform at the Chingay parade, given how it’s one of the most-watched events of the year in Singapore.

Unfortunately, a lion dance troupe, Dance Spectrum International (DSI) found themselves unable to perform at the event after massive backlash.

On 11 Dec 2020, in Lianhe Zaobao‘s showcase of the dance troupe, members were seen wearing tutus under their lion dance costumes.

Lest you didn’t know, this is a tutu:

Their segment drew criticism and an online petition asking for the lion tap dance to be removed garnered over 1,200 signatures.

Several supporters of the removal said that it was “disrespectful” to traditions and “an insult to lion dance culture”.

On 28 Dec 2020, the People’s Association (PA) shared on their Facebook page that DSI will be removed from the Chingay performance.

Ten dancers from DSI, aged between 14 and 30 years old, were supposed to perform a 15-20 second routine in one of the six segments of the Chingay Parade next year.

The performance, if it had gone through, would’ve been the first for the troupe with a combination of tap dance and lion dance choreographed by the troupe’s founder, Sharon Liew.

Withdraw Due To Cyber-Bullying

According to the post by PA, representatives from People’s Association, Singapore Wushu Dragon & Lion Dance Federation (SWDLDF), and Dance Spectrum International (DSI) met over the past week after the video went viral for the wrong reason.

In the end, the dance troupe decided to withdraw from the show because of the cyberbullying experienced by the younger members.

It was also mentioned that Chingay is a platform celebrating “Singapore’s rich multiculturalism by promoting traditional art forms as well as creating space for artistic exploration and expression”.

“We express our support and solidarity with DSI, and hope the young dancers affected will heal from the harm done to them.”

You can read PA’s full post below:

Meanwhile, not all netizens are happy with the way DSI withdrew.

“Withdrawing due to cyberbullying” isn’t the right way. It should be attributed to something else, a netizen commented:

Guess you can’t please everyone, can you?

Feature Image: Facebook / Online Citizen