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Dragon dancing is one of China’s most famous art forms. Chinese Dragon Dances are performed not just in China, but in the streets of thousands of cities around the world to celebrate Chinese festivals. Dragons are perceived as scary and frightening in Western culture, but in Chinese culture they are seen as lucky, and are greatly respected.

In Chinese culture, a Dragon is made up of lots of different animals; a dragon has a deer’s horns, a horse’s head, a snake’s neck, an eagle’s claws, a tiger’s paws, a cow’s ears, a demon’s eyes and a fsh’s scales!

The Dragon Dance was initially performed as part of the harvest culture. It is similar to the Lion Dance which is also performed at festival time. Both dances are performed to loud drum and cymbal music, and are performed to bring luck.

The body and head of the dragon are made from brightly covered fabric and are attached to poles which the dancers hold and use to move the dragon. Most of the time, the dancers will hide under the material of the dragon’s body to make it look like the dragon is moving by itself. The dancers move the poles to make the dragon look like it is moving around like a snake, with its big head moving from side to side in time with the music. The colour of the dragon is symbolic; green symbolises a great harvest and red symbolises excitement.

One of the most impressive things about the Dragon Dance is the way that the team works together to move the dragon – one mistake from any of the team members would be very obvious. Each member knows how important it is to keep practising and working with the other members of the team to make sure the show is fantastic!

Lion Dancing is also very popular in Chinese culture. See what you can fnd out about Lion Dancing and share the news with your class.

Arts and crafts:

Make your own Dragon puppet

1) 2 pieces of red card (both about A4 sized) 2) Scissors 3) Glue (optional) 4) Sticky tape

5) 2 disposable chopsticks 6) Pencil

7) Pens and glitter glue for decoration 8) 1 googly eye (optional)

2) Open the card up and use scissors to cut all the way down the fold – be careful with the scissors!

3) Now you will have two identical pieces of card – take one of them and fold it about 2cm, then turn it over and carry on folding it in a concertina style until it is all folded

4) Do the same with the other piece of card and glue both pieces together to make a long body for your dragon

5) Take the other paper and draw a dragon’s head and tail using your pencil

6) Cut the head and tail out and decorate them with glitter and pens

7) Once the glitter has dried, glue the head and tail to the long red body

8)Attach your chopsticks to the back of your dragon using sticky tape