SEATTLE, Washington—The Divine Performing Arts (DPA) 2009 World Tour held two performances at the Paramount Threatre in Seattle. Many of the attendees at the second showing on Jan. 18, such as Mr. Edward, desired to see this beautiful and vibrant show again.
Mr. Edward is a television video engineer. He taught college-level photography in the past and has been a photographer for more than 30 years. He enjoyed DPA very much and he compared it to last year’s show: “It is a great show. … I really liked this year [with] the live music, I think it really added a different dimension to it.” He concluded that it would be nice to see the show more than once a year.
“It kind of creates a synergistic effect between the action on stage and the action that the music creates,” said Mr. Edwards. “I came last year, and it sounded very good with the recorded music, but the live [orchestra] was just different, a little more separation of clarity and ambience in the sound.
“I really enjoyed the music, the traditional Chinese music. I just had a great view of the stage,” Mr. Edward said. “I wish I could have seen more of the orchestra in terms of the Eastern traditional instruments that were being used.”
With his experience in camera production and photography, he saw the details of the elements in musical production as well as in lighting, patterns, and colors.
“The lighting was beautiful and the multimedia aspect with the way that the animations were use to take characters in and out of the scene and things like that,” Mr. Edward said. “I thought it never competed with anything on stage and only enhanced the experience of the colors of the costumes.”
“The colors, movement, the precision of the movements, and kind of symmetry that would come out of it, and the aspects of the importance of the individual, but also that the group is also the most important,” Mr. Edward said. He noted that this is not so in Western societies where it’s the individual that is most important. “With these performers, it is the group that is most important and the individual’s contribution to that.”
Mr. Edward stated that the use of colors and the outfits were just amazing. “Dramatic color plus subtle separations in color as well. I find a lot of them use [opposite colors]. I like the kind of subtle changes in costumes and things like that as well.”
His favorites were the opening dance, “The Five Millennia Begin,” and the closing one, “Knowing the True Picture Offers Ultimate Hope,” which brings the audience full circle from when heavenly, divine beings are preparing to enter the world to impart culture, to the present where they are again entering the world as humans to reawaken an understanding of truth.
“It is very spectacular when the screen opens with the fog and the stage and just the pattern that the dancers have on the stage. It’s not how they begin with the pattern, but how they also come back to a pattern at the end—I find [it] amazing.” He also admired the precision and grace.
The performance would look stunning in photographs, said Mr. Edward. “It would make an easy picture because of the patterns that are involved and the symmetry.” As he laughs he notes, “I couldn’t take pictures in there [referring to the theater].”
When asked about the lyrics of the soloist songs Mr. Edward states: “It also generates a lot of thought in my mind as well. Looking at your own life and your own problems, realizing that there are things beyond it that are perhaps … can help you understand your own place in the world.”
Another example came from the performance, “Knowing the True Picture Offers Ultimate Hope,” where it talks of finding the truth. “I think it’s a daily struggle to find your way and to find meaning and how each of us finds that within ourselves and those around us is what the challenge is. Many are able to find it and many are not.”
He was not too familiar with the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, which was depicted in the dance “Dignity and Compassion,” but he agreed with the basic principles behind it—truth, forbearance, and compassion. “I think that applies to anybody everywhere, and I think if people took responsibility in their actions, that in itself would create such a fundamental change in the world and would solve many of our problems right there,” stated Mr. Edward.
“[When going about] in the world … don’t expect any more of the world than it is going to give to me. And to just respect others and think of others before I think of myself.”
He highly recommends the show: “I think it’s great for anybody to come to—of all ages.” Being from an educational setting, he highly recommended students from any kind of study, especially for music and [other] cultures to attend.
The next U.S. performance of the DPA is at the Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour.
For more information, please see divineperformingarts.org
