ST. LOUIS—The Divine Performing Arts (DPA) performed at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis on Feb. 7 as part of the DPA 2009 World Tour. The show won the acclaim of both Eastern and Western members of the audience.
Mr. Behrmen, a professor and dean at St. Louis University, said the show far surpassed his expectations. He said that the opening act, The Five Millennia Begin took his breath away to the point where he shouted out, “Amazing!”
“I am breathless. It is visually spectacular, awe-inspiring, brilliant, and amazing. The flowing colors, body movements, and costumes are spectacular, Behrmen said. “The visual experience is what makes it so dynamic. To watch this on television or on a DVD would not be the same.”
Behrmen said he was awestruck by the blend of Chinese and Western instruments. “It captured the environment. I felt like I was being lifted off my seat by the music and the human movement on stage!”
The DPA orchestra is a classical Western orchestra that is augmented with traditional Chinese instruments.
The singers especially impressed Behrmen. He said they filled the whole auditorium with their voices. “Some of the notes that they are able to hold and elaborate are just incredible,” he said.
The vocal soloists of DPA are elite, highly acclaimed singers who perform throughout the year on many of the world’s greatest stages.
Behrmen was deeply moved by the dance Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution. “I was thinking, it is just amazing how much the human body can communicate without language—how well that story can be told without a spoken word, beautifully depicted and communicated without a single word,” he said.
Behrmen said that this is a year of hope: “It is a planetary experience that there is hope in the air. What I have seen on this stage is that expression of hope. Having an event like this brings me hope that … all cultures can recreate the planet in a harmonious way,” he said.
He would like to see that captured in our dialog with one another and in our diplomacy.
“That was my spiritual awareness during the show,” he said.
Behrmen’s only regret is that he missed the opportunity to invite all his Chinese students to the show as he thinks they would have been so proud of the Chinese culture presented by Divine Performing Arts. He said he hopes that DPA will return next year; he will not miss that opportunity again.
For more information please visit DivinePerformingArts.org
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