BILOXI – The lion blinks its fur-lined, hand-painted eyes as it approaches a set of red benches, stacked two on two. Nervous, it makes a few practice jumps, bounding from side to side as its fabric body ripples. Then, it rears up to stand on its hind legs before leaping forward, four sequined paws landing onto the narrow wood.
Off to the side, musicians play furiously. The drummer beats out a steady da-dum as the lion grows more confident, and the gong follows the drum. The crash of cymbals rings in the air.
After returning to the ground, the dancers lift off their costume to reveal two young men, who drop into a quick bow before transforming back into the large cat. One dancer manipulates the lion head, the other, bent over at the waist, acts as the tail.
This is lion dance, a cultural performance art that originated from China over a thousand years ago. Now performed as a way to symbolically ward away evil and spread good fortune, it is practiced throughout eastern and southeastern Asia, and the global Asian diaspora. In Mississippi, a state with a less than 2% Asian population, it was pursued by a troupe of self-taught Vietnamese American youth from Biloxi.
This Saturday, five months after festival organizers reached out to them, the White Tiger Lion Dance team will perform on their first Jackson stage during the 2026 National Folk Festival. They are Mississippi’s only year-round lion dance performance troupe.
The origin story
The White Tiger Lion Dance team originated out of a church teacher’s suggestion at the Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in Biloxi, said captain Andrew Dang. At 22, he’s both the oldest member of the team and the longest running, having been a part of the group’s 2019 founding. He recalls that his church class wasn’t interested in forming a soccer or football team, but when the teacher mentioned lion dance, everyone was intrigued. But unlike most lion dance teams that form out of martial arts schools with experienced instructors, the students taught themselves the playful and acrobatic “Hok San” dance style.
“We really didn’t have anyone to teach us the proper way of doing things, so we kind of just went on YouTube,” Dang said. “We kept redoing moves until we got it right.”
Three times a week, the dozen-strong group of youth, ages 13 to 22, drives out to their training space – the parking lot behind the church. While White Tiger outgrew the church in 2022, they still maintain a close relationship and perform at its annual Lunar New Year, or Tết, celebrations.
Members of the White Tiger Lion Dance team pose after practice in Biloxi, on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, a week before their performance at the National Folk Festival in Jackson. Credit: Bashirah Mack/Mississippi TodayIn the summer, outdoor practices mean hot evenings and mosquitoes. In the fall when night comes early, they practice under the lot’s shoebox lights. Dang said he’s on the hunt for an indoor space. For now, they set up benches on concrete and store their lion heads at a nearby nail salon owned by a team member’s parents.
The group keeps busy with local performances, with the money they earn going back into equipment and meals for the team. One weekend before the folk festival, the team’s first national stage performance, they gather to practice a routine they’re performing at a wedding the next day. Warmup is filled with chatter, punctuated by exclamations of “Bro, what?” When they start a run-through, they become focused and serious.
While routines on the ground can be challenging enough under heavy costumes and limited visibility under the lion head, the elevated benches add an additional level of difficulty. For today’s bench routine, William Van Lai performs as the animal’s tail while his lion dance partner, Minh Tran, is the head. To complete one common move called the head sit, Tran jumps while his tail dancer grabs a belt tied around his waist and lifts him into the air. Tran lands in a sitting position on Lai’s head, making it look as though the lion is standing.
It takes time to build confidence in a partner, both to land the move and to keep each other safe, 18-year-old Lai said.
“Especially when we do tricks like this, you have to trust your teammate,” he said. Lai started lion dancing during elementary school in the Gulf Coast, when members of a local Buddhist temple performed for Lunar New Year. Four years ago, he joined White Tiger.
“I always loved lion dance,” he said. “It’s always in my heart.”
A family of lion dancers
For Tran, the team became a place to build community. He immigrated from Vietnam at age 12, and his parents were initially wary about letting him join the group as a sophomore in D’Iberville high school. Now, seeing the hardworking character of the team, they encourage him.
“My friends right here, I don’t really see them as teammates,” Tran said, watching the group practice a ground routine with two lions. “I definitely see them as a family.”
Other members described the team as a brotherhood, borne out of their shared love of lion dance and desire to spread the art form in Mississippi.
When they offer public performances, even in Biloxi, people will come up to them saying that they loved the dance and have never seen it before, Dang said. That feedback helps motivate the team to improve their skills and create new routines each year.
Andrew Dang, captain of the White Tiger Lion Dance team, prepares to play the drum during a practice run-through in Biloxi on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. Credit: Bashirah Mack/Mississippi TodayDang remembers watching lion dance performances as a kid and being amazed at the spectacle of lions jumping into the sky paired with percussive music. As he got older, he realized that practicing allowed him to stay connected with his culture.
“My people, they do this back in Vietnam. They do it probably a lot better than us,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to bring this tradition to Biloxi.’”
Crowded together after practice, the team expressed their eagerness to perform for a national audience at the folk festival. They plan to perform their ground routine and send lions out to interact with the crowd, blinking and flicking their ears and showing another corner of the world what it means to be a lion dancer.
This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.
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