Our Coaches
What makes us different from everyone else? Our instructor team, of course. Here are people who have spent their lives ever-mastering the art of lion dance.
Most importantly, they are such great mentors their students, not only in martial arts, but in life as well.
Catherine Wong, Head Coach
I actually got my black belt in taekwondo when my school shut down and I was looking for another martial art to join. A friend from university in first year told me that he was training with Hung Mon to learn lion dance. I grew up watching Kung fu movies and being enamoured with lion dance, and I had no idea that there was a community in Edmonton. I jumped on the chance to get started and was hooked right away.
I grew up doing a lot of individual sports like gymnastics, martial arts, and swimming. Lion dance was one of my first team sports experience and I have made life long friends through this experience. The bonding through training, performances, and late night meals will be experiences that I treasure forever.
I have always loved coaching and teaching. Starting in high school, I was coaching swimming and taekwondo. It taught me so much about organization skills, leadership skills, and project planning. I firmly believe that if you can teach something, that’s when you truly understand it. Seeing our students grow and develop and start teaching themselves is the most rewarding aspect of all.
Steve Ta, Captain
I grew up watching my brothers performing during Chinese New Years and enjoyed looking at all the colourful lions dancing around. It really sparked an interest in me, so I decided to sit in a couple of practices to get a feeling for how training was like. The thing that I noticed from the very beginning was how everyone worked so well together and how much physical training actually went into lion dance. From that point I was hooked and started participating in class then officially joined the team.
I love how lion dancing is such a team-oriented activity. Everyone on the team plays an important role in each performance and like any other team sport, it’s very rewarding when the whole team works together towards a common goal. For us, that’s to spread the culture and joy to people whenever we perform. To be able to do that really makes all the training and time worth it for me.
To be honest, I never really saw myself in a teaching role, but I know how important it is from my experience when I first joined the team. As I started teaching more and more, I began to enjoy it. It’s very gratifying to see a student’s growth from the very beginning to becoming a full performer. This, along with being able to help accelerate this growth is what I love most about teaching.
Ryan Loo, Alternate Captain
As a child, I was always infatuated with the lunar new year. I always looked forward to the lion dances on TV or in person. As the years progressed, I found myself searching online for lion dance videos from around the world. Then one day, a friend suggested that I check out a practice with Hung Mon and try it out. I came to a few practices and loved it. I decided to stay because I loved the sport and enjoyed being apart of such a dynamic team.
I love the team aspect of lion dance. To be successful in lion dance, teamwork is key. We work hard together to put on a great performance. Everyone looks out for one another. Seeing the results of our team building makes lion dance very rewarding for me.
The part I love most about teaching is seeing the students’ journey through learning lion dance. It is very rewarding seeing a new student start performing and seeing them develop a passion for the sport.