We celebrated the end of another eventful year with our annual Christmas party at our Sifu's farm and the awards presentation.  The awards presented were:

Rookie of the Year - Zoe Saarinen
Most Improved - Nicholas Morphett
Proficiency Dragon - Harriet Bell
Proficiency Lion - Zachary Harvey
Wolf Pack Award - Jishen Li
Student of the Year - Zoe Saarinen
Three Virtues - Nicholas Morphett

Congratulations to all our award winners!

We now have a well earned break with our classes at Radford recommencing on Friday 3rd February 2023 and our classes at UC concentrating on performance recommencing on Wednesday 4th January 2023.  Our regular martial arts classes at UC will resume on Sunday 26th February 2023. 

Our Canberra Dragon Dance performance schedule for Lunar New Year 2023 to welcome in the Year of the Rabbit will be published soon!  It is jammed pack and full of surprises!  Thanks to some guest instructors for our club we will change the way Lunar New Year is celebrated in Canberra with some amazing interactive free shows across the whole of Canberra suitable for the whole family!

This year we held our term 4 gradings early since term 3 was so busy with 8 performances in lion and dragon dance for Floriade and Floriade Nightfest.  
Congratulations to the following students on their results!

Senior White Sash Dragon - Xander Sullivan
Senior White Sash Dragon with Honours - Zoe Sullivan
Junior Yellow Sash Lion with Honours - Max Ai
Senior Yellow Sash Dragon - Nicky Morphett
Senior Yellow Sash Lion with Honours - Zachary Harvey 

We've really celebrated the continuation of face to face training this year with some disruptions with students isolating due to covid (not contracted from our lessons might I add!)  After a busy performance schedule for Lunar New Year, Canberra Day and Australia Day in January and February our students have concentrated on martial arts and practical self defence.  We've also held lion dance workshops for John Paul College II and Ausdance ACT for Dance Week and performed at half time at a basketball match for the Canberra Gunners!  We were honoured to also perform in the forecourt of GIO Stadium as part of the NRL Multicultural Round for the Canberra Raiders.

Notable mention has been Harriet Bell who competed in her first tournament by entering forms in the first round of the National All Styles Tournament in Canberra and achieved a silver medal!  

We've also held 2 gradings and a supplementary and the results were as follows:

Zoe Saarinen - Senior White Sash Dragon with Honours
Nicky Morphett - Junior Yellow Sash Dragon
Andy Lo - Junior Yellow Sash Lion
Taha Abbasi - Junior Yellow Sash Lion
Harriet Bell - Senior Yellow Sash Dragon with Honours
Prajiet Eswaran - Senior Yellow Sash Lion with Honours
Jesse Lo - Senior Blue Sash Lion with Honours
Max Ai - Senior White Sash Lion with Honours
Zach Harvey - Senior Yellow Sash Dragon with Honours
Yulyana  - Level 2 Black Sash

After a very busy Lunar New Year performance schedule our classes for 2022 are in full swing with kids/teen classes at Radford College and adult/teen classes at the University of Canberra.  We follow the Covid Safe Protocols of the MAIA with lots of hand sanitiser, alcohol wipes, anyone with symptoms staying at home, minimal sharing of equipment and training outside whenever possible.  

it's not too late to join so don't hesitate - just follow your dreams! Come and meet a friendly group of positive active people and learn a new skill.  First lesson is free and we are one of the most affordable martial arts schools in Canberra.  

It doesn't matter if you are not physically gifted - we will help you no matter how long it takes.    If you have a background in music, dance or gymnastics you will love what we do and we will use  your talents no question about that!

Due to the Covid Lockdown we didn't have gradings in term 3 as originally planned or our annual community demonstration at Floriade.  But after perseverance by the students with online lessons, then outdoor lessons before our regular classes they put in a lot of effort to prepare for gradings in the last week of the year.  The results are:

Junior White Sash Dragon - Connall Ashcroft, Albert Pham
Senior White Sash Dragon - Ari Kovacs
Senior White Sash Dragon with Honours - Nicky Morphett, Aidan Henry, Louis Ferguson
​
Junior Yellow Sash Dragon with Honours - Sam Harvey
Junior Yellow Sash Lion - Taha Abbasi, Andy Lo

Congratulations to all the participants and thank you to everyone for helping to run the gradings! 

Last Sunday we had our Christmas party and end of year awards presentation.  There was a lot of food and everyone was drenched with water as we had water gun battles in the paddocks in Sutton and water balloon dodgeball matches. 

The awards for this year were:

Rookie of the Year - Max Ai
Most Improved - Leo Balfour
Proficiency Dragon - Vinnie Bianchini
Proficiency Lion - Jesse Lo
Wolf Pack - Jishen Li
Student of the Year - Prajiet Eswaran
Three Virtues - Jishen Li and Harriet Bell

Congratulations to the following students with their new ranks after passing the term two gradings:


Ayden Lieu - Junior White Sash Dragon
Anderson Lieu - Junior White Sash Dragon
Xander Sullivan - Junior White Sash Dragon
Max Ai - Junior White Sash Lion with Honours
Sam Harvey - Senior White Sash Dragon with Honours
Taha Abbasi - Junior Yellow Sash Dragon
Prajiet Eswaran - Junior Yellow Sash Lion
Harriet Bell - Junior Yellow Sash Dragon with Honours

​The highest mark for the grading was 85.5% achieved by Max Ai.  

The Yut Hung Kung Fu Academy and Canberra Dragon Dance is a  registered business in the Choose CBR discount voucher scheme which starts today for anyone visiting the ACT.  

We are listed under Things to Do with the name Canberra Dragon Dance.  You need to first set up an account with Choose CBR.   If you would like to redeem your discount vouchers with us just make a purchase for lessons or performances and let us know your 5 digit code and you will receive your discount.  This offer will only last until the ACT government scheme runs out of money!  Remember you get new vouchers everyday which only last for that day.

In a shortened term one our students were keen to start off a new year almost back to normal albeit following the Covid Safety Plan.  Students have been well trained and very keen to help with equipment cleaning, temperature checking and frequent use of hand sanitiser. 

Our end of term gradings were held the day before Good Friday and so far the results are as follows:

Louis Ferguson - Junior White Sash Dragon with Honours
Nicky Morphett - Junior White Sash Dragon
Kieran Chu - Junior White Sash Dragon
​Aidan Henry - Junior White Sash Dragon
Harriet Bell - Senior White Sash Dragon with Honours
Taha Abbasi - Senior White Sash Dragon
​Prajiet Eswaran - Senior White Sash Lion

More results are still coming in.  Congratulations to everyone who put in such a lot of hard work!

On Thursday the 17th December 2020 we held the last grading of the year.  We can proudly announce that Prajiet Eswaran has achieved Junior White Sash Lion with membership number #113,  Ari Kovacs has achieved Junior White Sash Dragon with membership number #114 and Taha Abbasi has achieved Junior White Sash Dragon with membership number #115

Our gradings require a lot of preparation with workbooks, homework, and physical, oral and written tests with all teenagers and adults submitting researched assignments as well.