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Demonstration at Ryton Gardens, Coventry 2003

 

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th of July saw the Sil Lum Kune Demonstration team return to Ryton organic gardens for the Natural Living show, to perform the Lion dance and martial arts demonstrations. This followed the successful demonstration that the team put on at the show the previous year.

Some members of the Sil Lum Kune Demonstration Team.


(L-R Alex Hyde, Vikky O’Brien, Jack Smith, Samantha Davies, David Richardson, Dan Amphlett, David Forsyth, Kevin Redgrave (doing splits))

The natural living show is a major event for healers and therapists attracting interest from all over the UK. Through demo squad members Vikky O’Brien, Alex Hyde, and Dan Amphlett, who were also exhibiting at the event with their business ‘THC’, Sil Lum Kune were invited to perform a Lion dance and martial arts demonstration. ‘THC’ is made up of four partners, Vikky, Alex, Dan and Ray who is Vikky’s husband. The partners are all members of Sil Lum Kune and their combined interest has led them to integrate the healing benefits of Kung Fu, KaiAmea, Kinesiology and Massage into their business. The four can treat many ailments including sports injuries as well as many other psychological and physiological disorders and also run courses on the various therapies. For further information, contact 024 7668 6574.

The Saturday meant an early start for some of the team members, so that ‘THC’ and Sil Lum Kune stands could be set up and ready for the start of the show.

The initial event for Sil Lum Kune was the Lion Dance. This was performed by Alex Hyde, Kevin Redgrave, David Richardson, and Samantha Davies. The Lion Dance was performed on an area of grass by the main cafeteria, and caused everyone who was waiting for their cups of tea to stop and watch. The dance went extremely well and caused great amusement for the children who were watching when it threw up the cabbage. The Lion dance was especially pleasing as it saw Alex dance the tail for the first time, having stepped in two days previously to cover for another team member. This was a fantastic achievement.

The squad then had an hour break before the martial arts demo took place. This event saw some new members of Sil Lum Kune join the demonstration team. For Vikky, Jack Smith, Todd Flanagan-Jones, and Paul Evans, this was their first taste of performing Kung-Fu in front of the general public. It was great to see new people volunteering and wanting to take part in the demonstrations and promote Sil Lum Kune. In Paul’s case it was more of a press gang operation as he had initially thought that he was coming along to help on the stand and hand out leaflets. But seeing as he turned up in uniform…..!

All of the new members performed excellently in what can be a nerve-wracking experience the first time. The remainder of the squad was made up of Dan, Kevin, Samantha and Alex.
The demo started with the whole squad performing the Blocking and Punching exercise, which is the basic form in the Sil Lum Kune syllabus. This was followed by Vikky demonstrating Dook Sau. This is a soft style form, and is very difficult to perform due to the slow flowing nature of the form. Various other forms were demonstrated to show the increasing difficulty of the syllabus. These included Jack showing Chat Yan, Samantha and Todd performing Yih Yan, David performing Tiu Mouh Nau Fu, Samantha performing Lin Bo, and Kevin demonstrating a Praying Mantis style form.

These were followed by various weapon forms that exist in the syllabus. This section of the demo started with Jack performing a staff exercise. This was then followed by with Alex demonstrating the Three Section Staff. This is a very difficult weapon to use due to it being linked together with chains. It also made a nice break for Alex from her duties as Sil Lum Kune’s narrator.

The demonstration was finished with some breaking. This had Dan performing a two-way break using his hand and forehead, and Todd performing a flying side kick over four squad members before breaking a board whilst in mid air.

The Sunday saw the same format for the demonstration, with a small change to the line up. Owing to other commitments, Paul Evans was not able to attend on the Sunday, and so David Forsyth volunteered to step in. Again it was his first ever demonstration. Again he thought he was just going to hand out leaflets, and again (as did Paul) he made the mistake of turning up in uniform! Following another quick press gang operation by Dan and Kevin (and the threat of being given press ups) he was persuaded to take part in the demonstration. David acquitted himself fantastically and has since agreed to become a full time member of the demonstration team.
The demo on the Sunday was closed by Sam Smith (Jack’s younger brother), demonstrating some of the syllabus from the Little Ninja Program that Sil Lum Kune run. This went down very well with the watching public and was of great delight to his Grand Parents who had come along to watch.

Thanks also need to go to Ray O’Brien for looking after the Sil Lum Kune stand whilst the rest of the squad were off performing, and also to Darren Lapworth who turned up and handed out leaflets. Both Ray and Darren are also Sil Lum Kune students.


Written By Kevin Regrave