Wake the lion. We come to you.
Singapore lion dance troupe and academy, performing since 2016.
Nine years of drums on Singapore's five-foot ways.
Nam Yang is a lion dance troupe and a teaching academy. We perform 醒獅 — the awakened lion — for openings, new years, weddings and stages, and we train the people who will still be doing it in twenty years.
Eight reasons a lion turns up.
01Grand Openings
02Chinese New Year
03Weddings
04Corporate & D&D
05Dragon Dance
06High-Pole
07Drums & Percussion
08Temple & Community
Anyone can rent a lion. The pluck is the craft.
The greens hide a red packet. The lion takes it down, chews, and spits the lettuce back over your shop and your guests — the fortune is not kept, it is thrown to you. That thirty seconds is what people remember, and it is the part a troupe either does properly or does not.
A lion is not alive until someone wakes it.
Before the first drum, the lion's eyes are blank. Your guest of honour takes a brush, dips it in red, and dots them.
That is 点睛 — and it is the only part of the ritual the client performs, not the troupe. Your boss, your bride, your grandfather. We bring the brush, the cinnabar and the lion; you bring the person whose moment it should be.
A troupe that teaches.
The 學院 in our name is not decoration. Nam Yang trains beginners from primary school through adults — footwork, drum, head and tail — and puts the ones who are ready on real stages.
- 01Beginners are the point. Nobody arrives knowing how. The first term is stance, footwork and drum rhythm — the head comes later, once you can hold the frame.
- 02Drum, cymbal, gong. The percussion section is half the performance. Every student learns to keep the set before they learn to move to it.
- 03Head and tail, both. You train both roles. The tail carries the lift and the balance; most people are surprised which one is harder.
- 04Perform for real. Students who are ready join the troupe on real bookings — openings, new year rounds and community shows, with the troupe beside them.
Questions we get every January.
What does a performance cost?
How far in advance should we book?
How much space do you need? Can you perform indoors?
What is included?
Do you help choose an auspicious date and time?
Can we learn lion dance with you?
Tell us the date. We'll bring the lion.
Grand opening, new year round, wedding gate or corporate stage — send us the occasion, the place and the time. Chinese New Year dates go three to four months ahead, so early is better than settled.