Jan 4, 20192 min read

2019 Rose Parade

What a busy way to end 2018 and start the new year!

The past few days have been a combination of early mornings, cold weather, and lot and LOTS of face paint. I had the honor of participating as a dancer on the China Airlines Rose Parade for the 5th time. Each year has been one amazing experience after another and this time was no different.

#facepaint #makeup #Taiwan #dancer #roseparade #2019roseparade #TheMelodyofLife #RhythmofTaiwan #130throseparade — It took roughly 2 hours to apply our crazy face paint,

This year marked the 130th Rose Parade set to the theme "The Melody of Life." China Airline's beautiful float created by AES Studios was named "The Rhythm of Taiwan" inspired by the traditional performances found at the beautiful temples in Taiwan. Our float featured a giant Techno Third Prince along with 6 dancers, 6 drummers, and 3 三太子. Once again, we were awarded with the International Award for most outstanding float from outside the United States.

Leading up to the parade we had to attend a press conference and judging, both requiring us to go full out with costumes and makeup. Each dancer was in charge of their own face paint. I'd estimate it took us each about 2 hours to fully paint our faces on… so our call times were extra early. On the actual parade day we met up at 1:00am to head over to the parade route together. Once there, everyone bundled up into the trailers and began applying the face paint. By 6am everyone was done with makeup and costumes and we started warming up. At 7am we started to head to our float. Imagine everyone's delight as they saw us making our way down the street!

We were stopped for multiple photos along the way. The early morning was freezing cold, but seeing everyone's happy reactions made it all worth it. When we got to our float, it was time to brave the cold and take off our layers. Luckily I had stocked up on hand warmers and had about 7 of them hiding in various places :P

The actual parade itself was amazing as always. The audience reactions are definitely my favorite part of the whole experience. As we went down Colorado Blvd., the audience cheers and excitement filled the crisp morning air with a sort of electricity. With the music blasting and drummers drumming, we danced our hearts out down the 5.5 miles. Every so often we'd get the occasional parade viewer running up to the float for a photo. Getting into character, it was fun to crouch down and pose for their photos while working that into our routine.

By the end of the parade, about 3 hours later and 40 something repetitions of our routine, we were exhausted. After weeks of practice and tons of face paint, the 2019 Rose Parade was finally over!

If you watched the parade let me know what you thought below or what your favorite float was! If you didn't get a chance to view it, I'll include some links below :)