What comes to mind first when you think of lion dance?For many Singaporeans, it's probably a sound – the loud clash of cymbals and the heavy pounding of drums, even before any images of brightly coloured costumes and heart-stopping stunts.So it was definitely unusual when I watched, for the first time, a lion dance performed in near silence on a tranquil Monday afternoon.At an open space at the foot of a Toa Payoh housing block, two dancers in red and white pants shuffled through a sequence mimicking a lion lowering a bridge, while another imitated the iconic drumbeats with his mouth. Watching from the sidelines was 44-year-old Jamsairi Kamaruddin, better known as "Bobby" – a nickname his grandmother gave him when he was a baby.He founded Kuo Chuan Arts & Cultural, a predominantly Malay lion and dragon dance troupe with around 20 active adults and children – an uncommon sight in an art form associated with the Chinese community and performed at special occasions such as Chinese New Year and business openings.
On the day of my visit, a small group of them was rehearsing quietly for an upcoming competition, careful not to disturb the neighbours. Mr Jamsairi's ground-floor flat opens directly into the open space. At his back door were two hot-pink drums stacked atop an ornately designed black-and-gold drum, alongside a box teeming with colourful paraphernalia. It was as though the troupe had spilled out of his home.He still remembers the first lion dances he ever saw.More than 30 years ago, when he was eight, he would walk past the Kuo Chuan Police Boys Club near his home each day, captivated by the sight of lion dancers practising and performing their stunts there. Before long, he had joined them, but the welcome was far from warm."I'm the smallest, I'm the only Malay guy down there. So (I got) bullied and so on," he recalled.But the lion dance bug had already bitten him. Undeterred that he stood out, he found himself falling deeper in love with the acrobatic feats set to cymbals, gongs and drums. Most of all, he was fascinated by the storytelling, and how a lion head could come alive in a dancer's hands."I love to see the eyes clicking. It's so cute. "I was curious. When the lion suddenly jumps up and has oranges ... how can this lion do these things?"
