‘It Was the Best Chinese Show I’ve Ever Seen’

'I loved it. I will definitely be back next year,' said Mrs. Brown. (The Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON—The Kennedy Center Opera House welcomed yet another performance by Divine Performing Arts (DPA), bringing in a full audience on Feb. 12. The show of classical Chinese dance and music received standing ovations from the pleased crowd at the nation’s capital.

Mr. Brown and his wife attended a VIP reception following the performance. Mr. Brown is the manager of an auction house for fine arts and antiques.

Mrs. Brown, who stays at home, raising their three children, said that she has seen a Chinese or Korean performance every year since she was a child, yet DPA stood out above the rest for her. “It was absolutely amazing. It was the best Chinese show I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen them every year since I was three!”

DPA brings together some of the top talents of the performing arts industry and presents the arts of China’s 5,000 years of culture. According to the DPA website, the dance company has set out to “breathe new life into traditional Chinese culture while providing audiences everywhere with an experience of sublime beauty.”

The focus on the ancient culture of China made for a unique performance, explained Mrs. Brown. “It had different parts of China represented instead of just one part of China represented and it had a wide array of stuff. It wasn’t just dancing, we got the singing and the drama,” she said.

“It was a very comprehensive exposition of Chinese culture, and not just Chinese folklore and culture, but spiritual culture too. I was really impressed by the spiritual aspect, how they represented [it], how they care about compassion and finding the way, and all of that spiritual stuff, and seeing the Buddhas on stage, that was really cool,” she said.

“I loved it. I will definitely be back next year,” said Mrs. Brown.

Through the vast medium of classical Chinese dance, the dancers of DPA perform ancient stories, ethnic dances, and modern tales. Dances ranged from gentle fan dances to energetic drum performances.

“Usually I go and see a dance show and a school of girls dance and there are not a lot of guys, so it was impressive to see so many male dancers, and instruments like the drums. Usually there aren’t instrument pieces in the shows I’ve seen in the past, so it was just so much more than what I’m used to seeing,” said Mrs. Brown.

She added that the traditions of Chinese classical dance are starkly different from those of modern dance, even in the Asian community. “I took modern Japanese dance in college, and yes, just like any modern art, it’s very, very different, and they strip it of all the really outlandishly beautiful stuff, like the gold and the emotions—there’s no emotions.”

“This is very emotional. I cried during the communist one,” she said, referring to a piece that told of a man persecuted to death for practicing Falun Dafa, a Chinese meditation practice that is currently persecuted in China by the communist regime.

“They have the brutality of the communists well represented,” added Mr. Brown, whose family escaped from Cuba and the Castro regime.

“I was weeping all over the place. I have a family of my own, and to see the family split apart like that … My own mother is from North Korea, so her own family was split apart,” said Mrs. Brown.

DPA is accompanied by the world’s first major orchestra to combine both Western and Chinese instruments. Mrs. Brown said that in all the shows she’s seen in her life, this was the first time she’d ever come across such music.

“I’ve seen Western orchestral or Chinese music recorded, and it’s just played in the background. They’ll use traditional songs that I grew up hearing from my mom. So they’ll use songs that we all know, and they’ll dance to it. So it’s like hearing Swan Lake and seeing the ballet. You already know the music, so you’re just seeing somebody’s interpretation of the dance that goes along with the music. But this music is all original, and I think that’s really amazing too,” she said.

It was the first time Mr. Brown had seen a Chinese dance performance. He said that before seeing the show, he knew very little about Chinese culture. “I didn’t know what to expect. I think I learned a lot about the monkey king, the real story of Mulan—because all I know is what I hear in the media, Disney and so on,” he said.

Mr. Brown said he had a deep interest in Eastern culture and had taken a trip to Japan when he was in high school. However, DPA opened his eyes to the depths of Chinese culture.

“I went over to Japan and figured all the cultures were pretty much the same—but that was not the case, and that really came out in the show. The Mongolians and the other cultures from around China that were represented—I’ve never realized the diversity of China,” he said.

  For more information please visit DivinePerformingArts.org