Saturday, April 3: Demo
While most of us recovered from the workout with the Beijing Team people started filtering in to NWTC to watch the Demo by the Beijing Team. It was a pretty full house as you can see from the pictures. Among the illustrious audience members was Michael Jai White of Spawn fame. He was on the other side of the room from me, but what the hey.
So, the demo was similar to the performance at Zellerbach. They came out and started with basics. As usual they were amazing to watch. I tried to get as many pictures of them as I could but most of them are blurry. They’re just too darn fast!
After basics they did hand sets, then weapon basics, then weapon forms and sparring sets. Oh and they also had a group straightsword set by the Beijing Team women, and the group double broadsword set, which was fun to watch.
I think I spent most of my time trying not to let my legs get all cramped up and ignoring the developing soreness so I don’t recall the specific order of events. However, I do remember a few key things.
The first was the jumping which was, as usual, disgustingly amazing. Espcially that 17 year old team member. What kind of kangaroo steroids are they putting him on?
Another thing I noticed this time were the eyes. I tried to pay particular attention to them this time because I’ve been trying to make sure my own eyes are expressive enough during sets. Li Jing has been really emphasizing that with my nan quan lately so I tried to watch them carefully. After watching I think I need to go home and practice in front of my mirror some more (ala Mark Saltzman from Iron and Silk). My eyes are too droopy.
I also really like the way they did the sparring sets. They were all in the back and then they would come out in groups and do their magic. It gave a professional feel to it, plus it made it feel like the action just never stopped. Having them walk out from the warm up area each time takes extra time away from the excitement, which is just extra time that your adrenaline levels can drop. ^_^
After the demonstration was over we all clapped and “whoo-hoo!”‘d like crazy. Then they served refreshments and some food for everyone. Matt, Peter and I decided to grab some food on the way to Disneyland after taking showers and cleaning up at Matt’s place so we took off. But not before I purchased a silk and some workout pants for John from Wushu West. One of these days when I win the lottery I’m going to go and buy a ton of wushu stuff from NWTC. It’s just too tempting being there with all that equipment.
Tony and Lilly decided not to go to the Happiest Place on EarthTM, but, after a quick shower and change at Matt’s and a trip to the Good Guys to get some more memory for my digital camera (I can now hold over 400 pictures! yay!) and some grub at Taco Bell we arrived at Disneyland all primed and ready for some fun in the Magic KingdomTM.