Johor Tamil school leads way with all-Indian lion dance troupe

HAVING one or two Indian members as part of a lion dance troupe is nothing unusual, but in Pasir Gudang, Johor, there is a troupe made up of all Indians.

SJK(T) Pasir Gudang has likely the first and only all-Indian lion dance troupe in the country.

According to reports in Sin Chew Daily, the troupe was formed in August last year and recently caught public attention when it performed at the Mid-Autumn celebrations in Kg Batu Masai.

The troupe started when Kalavani, a 37-year-old mother, proposed that the school where her child is studying form a lion dance troupe.

She then referred lion dance instructor Tom Chan to the school.

Kalavani also has two other children who love lion dance and have been training with Chan for over a year.

Headmistress C. Thilagvathy said they discussed the matter with the school’s Parent-Teacher Association and agreed to the proposal.

They believed that the formation of a lion dance troupe would help promote racial integration.

“It would also pave the way for the first Tamil primary school among 72 others in Johor to have a lion dance troupe,” she said.

However, she said it was not a smooth start as the school had to explain to parents who questioned the rationale of learning a different culture.

“Others feared the lion dance may contain religious elements,” she said.

Thilagavathy and the PTA chairman, K. Krishnamoorthy, were not familiar with the background of lion dances, except having watched such performances during Chinese New Year.

However, Krishnamoorthy encouraged his child to join the troupe and later learnt that some other parents had also learned lion dance before.

Following that, the school, with assistance from Chan, formed the lion dance troupe with 25 boys and girls from Years Two to Four.

There are a total of 247 pupils in the school.

According to Chan, he spends about two hours every Monday afternoon coaching the students.

As a majority of the pupils are from the B40 group, the school did not have the budget to purchase the needed equipment and they had to borrow lion heads, drums, gongs and cymbals.

Strong commitment from students

According to Chan, he was surprised at how committed the pupils were to learning lion dance.

He said he had to rely on some pupils for translation to help him communicate with the others, some of whom were not proficient in Bahasa Melayu.

“In return, I also learned some Tamil from the pupils,” said Chan.

As a sign of cultural integration between the Chinese and Indians, Chan said he had also designed a peacock-style lion for the troupe.

“The lion head is slightly different from the normal ones as the body is covered with images of peacock feathers.

“The steps of the performance are also a blend of Chinese and Indian dances,” said Chan.

He said he had since received inquiries from other Tamil primary schools to set up a lion dance troupe.

Pasir Gudang deputy education district officer Mohd Jefferin Saat said he strongly supported the formation of the lion dance troupe as it helped to promote greater unity. – The Vibes, January 23, 2024