Six youths specialised in street dancing took on the challenge to learn the famous lion and dragon dances in China.
They are Ben Veira, David Chee, Emmanuel Naime, Benjamin Gemelaia, George Tau and Michael Solian.
The group travelled with team leader Robin Seeto to South-east China in November where they spent a month there learning the techniques and style of lion and dragon dancing.
The trip was sponsored by the China-PNG Friendship Association aimed to get young Papua New Guineans to learn about the Chinese culture.
Group leader Veira said they grasped a lot from the training and despite the language barrier, they were able to communicate with the instructor through dance movements.
The group were fast learners and able to learn the techniques, movements and tricks of lion dancing in one week when normally it takes a Chinese person one year, six months to learn.
The dragon dance took them 10 days to learn when normally it would take over a year.
“Dragon dance is hard and tough to learn and needs patience, time, commitment and you need to be mentally and physically fit.
“We wish to teach upcoming dancers the skills of these Chinese dances as it is good to learn about other cultures and try something different,” he said.
Veira said they did a few public performances at events and schools and the Chinese were surprised to see people from another country do their dance and they enjoyed it.
The group is planning to showcase the dances and the new skills they learnt hopefully during the Chinese New Year in Port Moresby in February.