We went for a dragon dance competition tonight, after dinner. Amazing gymnastic abilities, great stamina, strength & synchronisation among 12 troupe members.I was expecting my son to immediately want to go home the moment he heard the loud drums. He is not fond of loud sounds. At home, when the blender goes on (to make his daily smoothie), he'd cover his ears & run around the dining table (its next to the blender) - it's his way of saying it's too loud for his liking. When he was at kindy (to get him familiarised with environment), there was a "music & movement" session where the Macarena song was blasted very loudly that he was very afraid & clung on very tightly.
So my purpose tonight was to try to desensitize him to loud sounds. Frankly speaking, I hate loud noises too. As a child, I was terrified during a lion dance - too loud & mask was scary - and never wanted to go near another performance again. So I would have understood if he'd wanted to go home.
As it turned out, we stayed an hour! When we were at the outdoor carpark, walking to the venue, he was afraid & clung on tight, because the drums were very audible. Surprisingly, he was ok once we got to the viewing area. When asked if he wanted to go home after 2 or 3 teams performed, he replied "more". He replied 'yes' when asked if he liked the dragon dance!
Was also pleasantly surprised that it was a "glow in the dark" version of the dragon dance! Is this a norm? I dont get out often enough these days! Dragon was luminous, with ambient lighting off & UV lights switched on & the team dressed in all black (except percussionists were in luminous outfits). Dragon was at times slow or graceful or playful or forming geometric patterns or fast & furious. What a bonus! Good visual stimulation! Everything in black & easy for his eyes to be focused on the dragon. No distraction from the team members prancing around or audience moving about.
