A ferocious competition brought dancers from five countries together in Alberta’s capital city on Friday. The Pan American Lion Dance Championship and the Canadian National Lion Dance Championship take place in Chinatown’s Kinistinâw Park over the weekend as part of the Edmonton Dragon Festival. The festival celebrates Chinese culture through food, performance and community events. It offers Chinatown food tours, a marketplace, a beer garden and live entertainment. The locally produced Chinatown documentary Shades of LuLu will premiere at a free movie night Friday, followed by a screening of Shaolin Soccer. On Saturday, CantoPop night brings live music from Cantonese and Asian pop culture to the main stage. Joanna Wong, chair of the Edmonton Dragon Festival said the festival has grown “exponentially” since the inaugural 2024 event. “We just want to show you what Chinatown can be like, what vibrancy will look like,” Wong said. “It’s just amazing energy that’s in here.” This is the first time the Pan American Traditional Lion Dance Championship has been held in Edmonton, bringing together 19 teams of dancers from Canada, Mexico, Panama, the U.S., and Trinidad and Tobago. Lion dancing is a traditional Chinese art form in which dancers bring elaborate costumes to life, to ward off evil spirits and to bring luck, joy and good fortune to the community. “When you get that synchronization in order, you look really beautiful and it creates the image like a real lion,” Trinidad and Tobago dancer Mancini Mahadeo said. “Working together with the music as well, it just shows how beautiful the Chinese art is.” The Canadian championship finals take place Saturday, and the Pan American finals will be held Sunday.
