Cultural Connections with the Imperial Lion Dance Team

Join us for this energetic performance in the museum garden!

The Imperial Lion Dance Team is a professional lion dance team established in Worcester, MA. Performing the thrilling style of Hok San lion dancing, they are proud to be four-time New England Regional Champions and National Champions, first in 2019 and second in 2023. They focus on providing an unforgettable experience for all their guest as they become engulfed in the beats of the drum, the step of the lion, and the central story being told by the performance.

Thousands of years ago, there was a peaceful village near the mountains in Asia. Every year, monsters would descend from the mountains terrorizing the village and eating all of their crops. The villagers did not know what to do to scare away these monsters and were beginning to lose hope. But one day, a traveling shaman told the villagers that these monsters were scared of loud noise, fire and the color red. With this new knowledge, the villagers created animal-like costumes from bamboo and pieces of cloth and accompanied it with firecrackers and loud banging pots. The next time the monsters appeared, the villagers came rushing with their lion-like costume, pots and pans and fire crackers and successfully scared off the monsters.