As we welcome in the western New Year (based on the sun) for 2017 we are also awaiting the start of the Chinese or Lunar New Year (based on the moon).  Chinese New Year's Day is 28th January 2017.  Each year is dedicated to one of the 12 animals (slightly different to the 12 animals in our style) and one of the 5 elements (same as our style).  The upcoming New Year will be the Year of the Fire Rooster (technically red rooster!!)

The celebrations around this time lasts for 2 weeks and are known as the Spring Festival.  The highlight will be the multiple performances and blessings by our good friends, Prosperous Mountain Lion Dance Troupe and you will see their lions around Canberra at various restaurants and clubs.  The details are on their facebook page at ​https://www.facebook.com/canberraliondance/​

Our academy will have a stall at the National Multicultural Festival at Petrie Plaza (The Chinese Quarter) on Sunday 19th February and will perform a demonstration then.  We will also have a small demonstration at Westfield Belconnen on Saturday 4th February -  the times for both of these will be announced soon.  During the stall we will be displaying our new Dragon Head and later this year our academy will also form Canberra's first Dragon Dance team, thanks to the tuition by Ares Nie.  

Our regular lessons start on Monday 30th January with some slight changes - our lessons now start at 1630 and will last for an hour and we are now located at the Combat Centre at the AIS (same building as last time but different room).  

New students are welcome to trial a free class!!

As our year came to a close several students were outstanding in their commitment to training and preparation for the December gradings, along with our weekend Wolf Pack classes.  Our Wolf Pack classes have now evolved and taken on a new discipline.  We have been fortunate enough to have the services of Ares Nie, a former Level 2 National Athlete in China for Wushu.  He has been teaching some of our dedicated students the basics of wushu and later this year the basics of dragon dance.  The students of the month of December were:

Dragon - Sanjiv Singh.  Very dedicated in class putting in 100% effort and this was evident in his excellent grading mark.  Also putting his hand up for weekend training and to participate in the upcoming demonstrations for Chinese New Year.

Lion - Tyson Baker.  Always disciplined in class with no complaints and has been also keen for extra training.  Although it was New Year's Day and not technically December we can't ignore his effort during our New Year's Day 9am Mount Ainslie Walk during which he ran up to the summit from the War Memorial in just over 15 minutes...wearing winter clothes!

Wolf Pack - Rajiv Singh.  Hasn' t missed a wushu lesson yet and is obviously trying his hardest, working through his pain barrier!  
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We will hold a kung fu demonstration in conjunction with Canberra Prosperous Mountain Lion Dance at Westfield Belconnen starting from 11 am on Saturday 4th February.

It will start with a parade of lions, drummers and our friendly dragon, Bruce (The Little Dragon) at Centre Court outside the Reject Shop and we will proceed past the shops on each level until we reach Toys R Us.  Our self defence demonstration consisting of forms, fight applications and board breaks will be performed there.

If you don't know where we are just listen for the drumming!