Hey gang,

We just got back from putting another great performance in the
books. Still far from flawless however. I see where we can tightenup
on a few things. Namely my drumming, a few adjustments on footwork
with the "buddha" Atleast the audience was very appreciative. We
dropped the "tail gag" but still got laughs when Kent as the
Lionhead, browsed the vender tables and played the crowd. Also, the
full shoulder stack got huge applause. Even the popper worked for us
for a change after failing in the last 2 performances. Today we
debuted our new gong stand that I slapped together yesterday from
ideas I learned from the Liondance team we trained with at the last
Zhang Sang Feng festival in the Pocanos 2 weeks ago. We got very
favorable results. The sound seems to resonate better now that
Claudia, our gong player, has a free hand. Today we also played with
a record 3 cymbal players! Featuring Saboto Trent, New member
Patricia Ramos and the long awaited return of Jim Rogan. Stephanie
Wascowitz opened the dance as the lionhead and we pulled a "switch"
for Kent to takeover for the portion that required the high lifts
with our new tail Eric Pease. It was a most gorgeous day to have the
festival, unfortunately the turnout was significantly less than what
was hoped for as compared to last year's capacity crowd. Perhaps the
date change had something to do with it when it was held in mid May
of 2006. Still it was fun to attend and I know I got alot out of the
workshop I attended and today's performance made the team THAT much
better.

Cheers!

Mel