(Clearwisdom.net) Divine Performing Arts (DPA) gave four performances of the Chinese New Year Splendor at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on January 24 and 25. They were accompanied by their orchestra. The show brought traditional Chinese culture and themes such as beauty, unity, and compassion to the New York audience. Dance, music, song, and story-telling were used to express these aspects of Chinese culture. Many artists who attended the shows gave their impressions.
"I Can't Wait for the Second Act: it's Gorgeous!"
Lisa Voos has a lot of experience with dance. She studied ballet throughout childhood, and her daughter was a professional dancer and now teaches ballet. Ms. Voos was interviewed at intermission to get her impression of the show. "I loved it! The opening number, as soon as I saw the curtain go up, I had tears in my eyes! The dances were beautiful! The costumes, everything. It was just so surreal."
Ms. Voos went on to say, "Classical ballet has been in my life for my whole life, but I never heard of Chinese classical dance--where you move your core muscles. It's so fluid! It's beautiful ballet lines, but you have more use of your body in this type of dance than in classical ballet. It's just so beautiful! Everybody moved at once--very professional. Everybody looked so young. I don't know how they're at this level so young."
Of the stories and messages conveyed in the dance, song--in the show, Ms Voos said, "They came across very well, very nicely. I love it! I can't wait for the second act: it's gorgeous!"
Educator of Music: I Wish I Could See More of the Drummers!
Elaine Gates is a professor of Music Education at New York University. She was very enthusiastic about the show, "I thought it was excellent! Absolutely excellent! It was very professional. It brought a lot of the culture and heritage to people who didn't know about it. Very well done!"
Elaine said that as a musician, she sort of had to play all musical instruments. As one who is well-versed in music, Elaine said about the music, "Very well done! Excellent! Excellent! It really was. I enjoyed the National instruments as well as the Western instruments. Very good! I wish I had seen more of the drummers. I enjoyed them in the beginning, and I was hoping they'd come out with the big drums and do more of the drumming. But it was just wonderful!"