MELBOURNE, Australia—The air was filled with anticipation at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Plenary Theatre on March 7.
“It’s a beautiful initiative. It’s got so many good things going for it,” Mr. Wills said.
“It was beautiful,“ Mr. Wills said. ”Every now and again, from the pit, from the orchestra pit, you hear the erhu, which is so uniquely expressive to Chinese culture, from the way it glissandos, as opposed to a Western vibe. It’s a completely different sound.”
With his deep background in music, Mr. Wills urged young people to expand their musical horizons.
“Unless you say, ‘Wow, look, it’s a big world. There’s all sorts of other music,’ you'll spend the rest of your life only listening to pop music or classical music, or whatever your zone is,” he said.
Mr. Wills has worked with many theater companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. From a theatrical perspective, he was impressed with the patented digital backdrop that interacts with performers as they jump in and out of the heavenly landscapes.
Traditional Stories
Ms. Chen was entranced by the dance dramas, especially “The Origin of the Monkey King.”“I love the mythical stories of Sun Wukong, you know, “Journey to the West.” I grew up with that. It’s really awesome to see it on the projector,” she said.
Ms. Chen also has a musical background. “I’m a musician myself. I play the Chinese flute.”
Universal Culture
It’s been said that Chinese civilization is divinely-inspired and offers messages for modern society, which Mr. Wills liked.“To me, the message is: It’s one humanity. It’s not a collection of different bits and pieces. We need to behave as one humanity, and embrace one humanity, and accept one humanity,” he said.
Mr. Wills noted how Chinese traditional values are similar to those of other cultures. “There’s enormous similarities between Chinese traditional values and Jewish traditional values. We need to celebrate what makes us unique, and we need to celebrate our commonalities—the things that join us.”
A dance piece set in modern times, “The Steadfast Heart” depicts the persecution of Falun Gong believers who are killed so their organs can be harvested. Mr. Wills wants to see this end.
Mr. Wills said, “Everyone should be free culturally to express themselves. It’s incumbent on all of us to ensure that we can create the conditions for it to happen.”
“Water Sleeves” especially impressed Mr. Wills, considering his experience in theater. “I’m going to do some choreography work with these costumes. I’ve got to get some of these costumes with those long sleeves.”
“We have lovely Chinese dancers, and we have lovely Chinese costumes, and the CGI is beautiful,” he said. “The dancing I loved. I loved the storytelling side of it. I loved the two musical moments where we could actually hear a Chinese singer express herself in that way, and the erhu player doing the solo.”
