Golden Phoenix Lion Dance Arts and Athletic Association head coach J Lantry leads the Lion Dance team in music practice at 5 Elements Kung Fu on April 26, 2025. (Photo by Italia Caro/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – The air is quiet but charged with energy, like the moments after a lightning bolt arcs across the sky during a thunderstorm. Then, the thunder returns — the drum rumbles. The lions have arrived, summoned by the drum. They stand still, waiting for the next crash of lightning.
The sharp hits on the drum make the air tremble, while the cymbals and gong ring out over the thrum.
The lions spring into action, the spell that held them motionless now broken by the crash of the percussion. They raise their heads, moving sharply to the left and right, exactly on beat. The precise, sharp movements entrance the audience, but the crack of fireworks and the pop of light tear their eyes away from the lions.
Another rumble of thunder. The lions are off, weaving through the crowd. Hands, both old and young, reach out to pet the silky fur that adorns the lion costumes. The lions’ eyes flutter and tails wag as they receive pets and money carefully placed in their mouths by squealing children.
The lions raise their heads at the call of the drum and make their way back to the stage, grabbing a scroll and standing on their hind legs to let it unfurl in the grand finale of the performance.
The thunder and lightning go silent.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the people, cultures and practices that make up the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. One practice is the lion dance, a traditional Chinese dance that chases away evil spirits and brings good fortune. There are two styles of lion: Northern and Southern. The Southern lion has two main styles of lion dance: Futsan and Hoksan, each with their own variations.
One of Golden Phoenix Lion Dance Arts and Athletic Association’s lions, ChéngChéng (Orange in Chinese), rests on the bench as the team practices. Photo taken April 26, 2025. (Photo by Italia Caro/Cronkite News)
The Golden Phoenix Lion Dance Arts and Athletic Association’s team performs in the style of Sar Ping, which was derived from the Hoksan style. The team initially performed in the style of Futsan but transitioned to Sar Ping when its head coach, J Lantry, discovered the style.
“When you see Sar Ping done really well, it’s almost like you lose yourself in this illusion of a lion,” Lantry says. “And then, every once in a while, you have to remind yourself there’s people under there — that’s not just a thing!”
The association is young compared to some other lion dance teams that are generations old. It started with a few volunteers doing occasional performances, but it’s grown since then, with returning members and new recruits practicing the art side by side.
“Probably this year, it started to feel a bit more cohesive,” Lantry says. “We can breathe a little bit easier because we’ve gotten pretty much doubled in size since last year. … The people that we had last year are teaching our new people this year. It doesn’t feel like it’s just me who’s teaching everything.”
Lantry and the team aim to ensure they’re performing the lion dance with as much respect and honor as possible — a necessity for this ancient art form.
The dance has held multiple roles throughout history. It began as a ritual based on an emperor’s dream of a lion saving him; later, it became a form of rebellion during the Qing Dynasty, when performers would use the dance to communicate with other rebels. Now, it serves as a ritual for good luck, prosperity and as a symbol of Asian cultures in America.
“It’s important for us to honor it because this is part of so many people’s memories — it’s a deep, deep part,” coach Shell Stacey says. “A lot of folks of Asian descent have grown up with this, and it’s held some very fond memories, and we want to keep reliving these memories.”
Golden Phoenix Lion Dance isn’t a traditional lion dance team; instead, members of varying ages and cultural backgrounds come together to perform the art form. “For me as someone who is not Asian, it’s a great way for me … to not be just another white guy doing martial arts,” coach Elijah McStotts says. “It’s a way for me to actually foster and pay respect to the heritage and arts that I am working at and hopefully, one day, teaching on my own.”
The team is also constantly looking to improve and honor the tradition of the lion dance. “We don’t want to be seen like we’re trying to take advantage of this amazing cultural tradition just to make money or anything like that,” Stacey says. “We work so hard to make sure that we have the resources and we have people to talk to and educate ourselves. That’s the best thing we can do, is just perform our art in earnest.”
One of those resources is a shifu, or teacher, from a sister school in Wisconsin who helps the team learn the Sar Ping style.
“We’re being scrutinized because we’re not a very traditional lion dance team,” Stacey says. “We learned from him how important it is to closely follow these traditions to make sure that we do the appropriate representation.”
Sar Ping is taught through lineage, from shifu to student and then to the next student. For McStotts, being a part of that lineage gave him confidence that when he performs and teaches the lion dance, he’s doing it with honor and respect.
He says he’s careful not to “appear to be appropriating culture or disrespecting culture,” and he adds, “Being able to have this proper lineage so I know what I do, why I’m doing it — what steps the lion does to certain beats to mean certain things — it gives me a little bit more legitimacy in what I’m doing, what I’m teaching. And so I do feel that I can do this with the honor and dignity and respect that it deserves, and not that I’m just out there screwing around in a lion.”
The work that goes into the dance isn’t seen by the audience, but the final performance leaves viewers awed. Amy Jacober has seen another lion dance group perform and was astonished.
“There’s a lot of skill in being able to move while having something like [the lion costume],” she says. “We saw them and talked to them afterward, and they were breathing heavily and they were sweaty. It clearly took effort, but they were so good at it that it looked effortless.”
Golden Phoenix Lion Dance Arts and Athletic Association performs their Lunar New Year dance at the 2025 Phoenix Chinese Week in Steele Indian School Park on February 1, 2025. (Photo by Italia Caro/Cronkite News)
The work the team puts into learning the cultural significance of the dance is evident to the audience, whether they’re familiar with the dance or not. “We were performing a last-minute show and we brought out the lions, and as we were taking our first bow, you could hear some of the guys saying, ‘Oh, they’re actually doing it legit,’” Stacey says. “That’s good — like, OK, we’re doing it right.”
The group’s cultural liaison and publicist, Jerryi Phillips, was born and raised in China before moving to the United States when she was 24. She and her daughter were looking for a lion dance team to join to stay connected to their cultural heritage. They joined the team after Phillips saw a performance.
“I wanted [my daughter] to be involved in the cultural activities here in [the] United States, and seeing the team performing reminded me of the lion dance I’ve watched growing up in China,” Phillips says. “I wouldn’t just enroll her in any lion dance team, but this one … the music, the showmanship, it’s very authentic. Nobody gets paid, everybody volunteers their time, the coaches volunteer. Everyone has a heart of gold, [they] give their time, and some even contribute financially to do whatever is needed to keep the association going.”
The passion that members have for the lion dance helps them to honor the art. “To stick around in lion dance, you have to like it,” Lantry says. “The people who do stick around are the people who are interested in doing well at this art form, this sport, and are interested in making sure other people are educated about it.”
As someone who grew up with lion dances, Phillips is continuously amazed at the dedication each member has to learning and performing the dance.
“To see how different colors, different races, different ages, different sexual orientation[s] … to see how they raise this culture and see how they are dedicated and committed to this team … and for the new team members coming on board, within a week, they just melt into the team,” she says. “We become this giant lion, really.”