TORONTO—A professional dancer who attended Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour at John Bassett Theatre Saturday night said the show’s dancers were exceptionally skilled.
“It’s very fluid and smooth, even the tumbling is very smooth, their choreography is beautiful,” said Mrs. Ahmad during intermission.
Mrs. Ahmad started dancing at three and began her performing career with one of Canada’s most renowned ballet companies. She now heads her own dance studio, a studio known for turning out accomplished dancers that earn top marks in some of the country’s toughest dance competitions. Many of her students go on to earn scholarships in dance or gain entry into the National Ballet School.
“They’re very professional,” she said of the Divine Performing Arts dancers.
“You can tell that they have rehearsed together well. Their execution is very very clean,” she said.
The dancer added that as a professional she is used to watching other dancers critically, noting flaws and analyzing technique.
“It sounds terrible but you actually look for mistakes, and I am getting caught up in the story. Which is true, I mean they have done their job, the art is there, they’ve captured us and they have created a story. I’m caught in the story and I’m not looking at the technical elements. That is an excellent job.”
Her husband, Mr. Ahmad, who acts as the managing director of the studio, was also moved by the performance.
“I’ve been to Beijing before and I’ve seen some the Chinese dance. I didn’t really connect with it,” he said.
“Tonight I didn’t know what to expect. I came in with expectations sort of based on what we saw in China, but this is far and away, heads and shoulders, above what we have seen before—in China.”
“It really works for us, it’s fantastic, we’re enjoying it a lot,” he added.
Mr. Ahmad added that the costumes were “marvelous” and that he was very impressed by the power of the male dancers. He noted one dance in particular, Dance of the Snow-Capped Mountain, that features one dancer performing a series of leaps that Mr. Ahmad found astounding.
“Just incredible and it’s polished, the training is unbelievable. I know how hard that is to do and that’s really hard and it’s seemingly effortless,” he explained.
The dancers of Snow-Capped Mountain vigorously celebrate the joys of the Tibetan steppes as the spin, stomp, and step in extravagant gesture of welcoming.
Mr. Ahmad also said he enjoyed the female lead in The Monkey King Triumphs, a dance based on a scene in Journey to the West, one of China’s most beloved classic novels written close to 500 years ago. The protagonist, a Buddhist monk, is traveling to India in search of scriptures, joined by an ogre, a pig, and the miraculous Monkey King. Along the way they are set upon by a demon that assumes the guise of a temptress. That temptress was played by Madeline Lobjois, one of Divine Performing Arts lead dancers and Mr. Ahmad’s favourite performer in the first half of the show.
“They were all fantastic, but there was just something about her performance all the way through. She really connected with the piece and the character she was playing—from beginning to end. That was superb, one of my favorites, but they were all fantastic.
Divine Performing Arts takes its inspiration from 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and many of the dances are based on that country’s rich wealth of myths and legends.
Divine Performing Arts will take to the stage three more times in Toronto before moving on to Montreal and then to New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall.
For more information, visit www.divineperformingarts.org
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