Getting in Step With Vietnamese Culture

Though the young men had a distinct disco rhythm and the emcee used the word “like” and “buff” to describe the dancers, the troupe performing a Vietnamese dragon dance for Heritage Elementary School students succeeded in conveying the joyful spirit of the Tet holiday.

Performances this week marked the third year in a row that Los Amigos High School students from the Asian Student Union have brought their lunar new year celebration to Heritage. The most important holiday in Vietnam, Tet honors the dead and celebrates hope for the future.

The dancing and the instruction that students receive leading up to the presentation teach them about the Vietnamese, “who they are and what they are about,” said Cathy Ryder, activities director at Los Amigos.

This year’s performances, choreographed by 14-year-old Los Amigos student Cathy Vu, included a humorous courtship dance involving five couples. The tale was told through coy use of the young ladies’ umbrellas and the young men’s fans and flowers.

Initially spurned by the women, the men unite and discover that playing hard-to-get works wonders. It’s just like real life, one of the dancers explained afterward. “We are trying to get the girls,” said Newton Hoang, 16.

“And they are being stubborn,” Trung Le, 16, added.

“We get them in the end, though,” Hoang said.

One of the young women in the group offered a different perspective: The boys’ affections, said Amy Lam, 17, are “not always mutual. They get dumped a lot.”

The emcee, student David Kim, had stuffed his shirt and pants with pillows to look like ho tai, the man who shows up to tame a dragon. Despite his comical blows to the dragon’s head, he is unable to subdue it. Instead, he is knocked aside.

The dragon settles down when some Heritage students in traditional ao dai dress present it with oranges, which are a gift in return for the good luck that the dragon provides.

The event’s organizer, teacher Marilyn Manderscheid, said the Tet celebration is one of many ethnic events each year at the school, which has a diverse student body that is one-half Latino, one-third Vietnamese and the rest white, Filipino, Cambodian and Samoan. “We get to celebrate everybody’s holiday,” she said.