Lion dance is no sweat for kung fu troupe

Rik Kellerman and 20 of his kung fu students emerged covered in sweat after performing a traditional Chinese Southern Lion Dance in Stony Brook Sunday, but the 54-year-old martial arts instructor deflected the suggestion that the heat was uncomfortable under a 15-pound lion mask.

"It's kind of a mixed blessing. Chinese New Year is the coldest time of the year, so we don't get too hot under the lion head," Kellerman said.

Kellerman, who is Sifu -- Cantonese for "master" -- at Ten Tigers Kung Fu Academy in Huntington, led a quartet of four-person dancing lions around a 2,200-square-foot room Sunday during a celebration of Chinese New Year, which began Jan. 23.

The event, which drew 200 people to a sold-out Ward Melville Heritage Organization Educational & Cultural Center, is a chance for the community to learn about Chinese culture, organizers said.

It was one of 11 performances Kellerman and his students scheduled for the two weeks before and after the Chinese New Year. Kellerman, who honed his dancing skills on the streets of Chinatown and once danced for the Dalai Lama in Carmel, N.Y., said the dance is intended to bring "good fortune and prosperity" in the new year.

But Kellerman said his troupe, which consisted of two adult lions, an adolescent lion and a child lion as well as drum, cymbal and gong players, met two goals with the performance. The lion dance is typically associated with chasing off evil spirits, but it also serves as kung fu training for the students, he said.

"All of the dancing techniques you see are also fighting techniques," he said.

The students were a range of ages -- the child lion consisted of pupils age 9 to 12, the teenage lion 13 to 16, and the adult lion 13 to 62.

Shue Au, a 56-year-old student as well as a pharmacist from East Northport, said the dance is an experience for the audience as well as the participants.

"It's a celebration to me," Au said. "It's an energy, a very positive energy that goes out. It's very emotional -- you're not just a student, you're a lion."