What Does a Chinese Lion Dance Cost in the Washington, D.C. Area?

Why isn’t there a price list on this page?

Because the first question is never really the money. It is whether we are free. A lion dance is a live performance by a team of trained martial artists and musicians, and almost every conversation we have starts and ends with the calendar. Tell us your date and what you have in mind and we will reply with availability and a price, usually the same or the next business day.

What we can tell you plainly is how our calendar works, because that is the part you can plan around.

When is the team available?

Mainly weekends. Most of the team works during the week, so Saturdays and Sundays are when we perform, and those are the dates that fill first. Weekday events are not impossible, particularly for a grand opening or a lunchtime office celebration, but they need more notice and more coordination, so ask early rather than late.

Two periods are in much higher demand than the rest of the year. Lunar New Year is the busiest fortnight of our calendar by a wide margin, and those dates are reserved well in advance, often months ahead. Saturdays through the spring and autumn wedding seasons are the next to go. If your event falls in either window, treat the booking the way you would treat a venue: get the date held first and work the details out afterwards.

Outside those periods there is usually more room than people expect. If your date is close, ask anyway. For venues near our school in Kensington we can sometimes fit a short performance into a day that is already busy.

How do I choose between lions and a dragon?

That one is yours to decide, and it comes down to what you want your guests to see and how much room they will have to see it in. We will tell you honestly which we think suits your space, but there is no standard package we are steering you towards.

• One lion is two dancers working close to the guests. It fits a restaurant, a storefront, an office or an intimate reception, and it carries the blessing rituals: greeting the host, the choy cheng lettuce, presenting a scroll.
• Two lions fill a large ballroom or a festival stage and let the dance play out on both sides of a room, so nobody is watching from behind.
• The dragon is a team carrying a long body on poles behind the pearl. It needs a long, clear run and is at its best at parades, festivals, Lunar New Year celebrations and large indoor venues, where the whole length of it can be seen moving.

Plenty of hosts book a combination: the lions to open and bless, the dragon to close the show. Describe the space and the occasion and we will recommend what fits, then you choose.

What does a quote include?

A quote covers the performers, the lion or lions, the live drum, gong and cymbals, the team’s travel to your venue, and the traditional choy cheng blessing with the lettuce. We bring what the ceremony needs and we walk the host through the sequence beforehand so nobody is guessing at the moment it happens. There is no separate equipment charge and no per-musician charge; the percussion is part of the performance and is always played live rather than from a recording.

What a quote does not include is the red envelope, which is a custom rather than a fee, and any venue costs that belong to your own booking, such as parking or loading access. If the venue charges for either, tell us early and we will work around it.

Is the red envelope part of the price?

No. The red envelope, or hong bao, is a traditional gift of good luck offered to the lion during the performance, usually tied to the lettuce or handed over during the blessing. It is entirely separate from the performance fee, the amount is at the host’s discretion, and no part of it is negotiated with us. Hosts often ask what is customary; we are happy to explain the tradition, but the figure is yours to choose and the performance is exactly the same either way.

What should I ask any lion dance team before booking?

The words “lion dance” cover a wide range, so three questions tell you most of what you need to know about anyone you are considering. Do the performers train in a martial art? Is the drum played live or from a speaker? Do they perform the choy cheng blessing? The answers matter more than anything on a price list.

For our part, every person under a lion or behind a drum trains in Hung Fut kung fu at the Shaolin Hung Fut Kung Fu School, the school has been performing in this region since the 1970s, and the percussion is always live. Read more about the team and the lineage.

How do I check a date?

Send us four things and we can answer properly the first time: your date, your venue address, the occasion, and roughly how many guests. If you already know you want two lions, a dragon, or a kung fu demonstration, say so. If you are unsure, describe the space and we will tell you what fits.

Tell us about anything unusual early, such as a low ceiling, a long walk from the loading door, a strict noise window or a tight run of show. None of those are problems, but they change what we plan, and we would rather plan around them than discover them on the day. Send us the details and we will reply with availability and a price.

By occasion and area

The occasion pages explain how the dance is shaped for each kind of event, which is usually the fastest way to work out what you want to ask for: weddings, grand openings, Lunar New Year, corporate events and dragon dance.

For travel, the city pages describe the venues and drive times we know best in Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Arlington and Fairfax.