DPA: ‘Outstanding and very exciting’

College professor and an international business management consultant celebrated their New Year at DPA show.
DPA: ‘Outstanding and very exciting’
Audience members enjoy the DPA performance in Houston's Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston on Dec 22, 2008. ()
1/2/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/h.jpg" alt="Ms. Hawkins attended the show with Mr. Farmer, a management consultant on international business, marking a perfect New Year's Eve.  (Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)" title="Ms. Hawkins attended the show with Mr. Farmer, a management consultant on international business, marking a perfect New Year's Eve.  (Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1831803"/></a>
Ms. Hawkins attended the show with Mr. Farmer, a management consultant on international business, marking a perfect New Year's Eve.  (Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)
PASADENA, Calif.—Ms. Hawkins, a college professor of exercise physiology, science, and sports, celebrated her New Year by attending the Divine Performing Arts show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

“I like all the colors. I love that there’s so many colors. That’s not the western way, if you could see. And I’m impressed with the quality and the lines of the dancers, and their training. And then I enjoyed the traditional instruments in the orchestra, and I love the audio-visual, where they came with the same costumes, and then they fly out with the other costumes. It was wonderful,” said Hawkins.

Ms Hawkins came to the show with Mr. Farmer, a management consultant on international business.

“It was excellent, superb,” said Farmer. “I looked at the choreography, costumes, music the integration of all of these things was... each of them was excellent in themselves but when you put them together and integrate them it was fully outstanding and very exciting.”

Hawkins teaches and studies dance and physical body movements. She said that this is another reason why she “loved it.”

“I like to analyze the lines of the dancers—I’m not an artist, but in that way, the lines that they’re producing, and it’ very professional, to the level of anywhere in the world, but yet it has this Chinese influence, and the costumes in each dance are so different. I like that, I love variety.”

She was especially impressed with the opening and closing programs: The Five Millennia Begin, and Knowing the True Picture Offers Ultimate Hope.

“It is overwhelming because of the costumes and the colors, but for me in particular I liked the peacock with the eyes I saw them on the dresses and how the dresses were being the tails of the peacocks. I have owned a peacock.”

Ms Hawkins, originally from Guam, a multicultural island east of Philippines, has travelled to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and various places in Asia.

“I’ve at least had exposure, and that’s why I came—because it feels familiar to me. So I wanted to celebrate [Lunar] New Year, even though I know it’s really [before] February,” she said.

Hawkins was surprised by the spiritual depth in the show.

“I didn’t realize the spirituality that would be involved in the presentation. It makes you feel warm and good because we are used to the communist party which is closed religiously—no god, no deity…. So to see the freedom of expression coming from the Chinese artists spiritually was wonderful.”

For Farmer, the fusion of several aspects of the performance, with which he was “very surprised, very happy,” left a deep impression in him.

“I think I liked the mix of the orchestra. The dancing was superb, the use of colors was superb, the choreography was superb—so if you say what’s good about it, what makes it excellent is the mixture of these things, which all have a standard of excellence.”

He believes that the profound cultural heritage of China will influence the world.

“My overall impression was that, it’s clear that in regarding longer history and civilizations, that China is clearly on the new wave of things ... and now in the arts and cultures, we’re seeing a variety of different aspects of that, that China is not a small, monolithic ... but a very broad and diverse culture which has much to contribute to the world, and it’s certainly in a new era.

“One of the delightful things about tonight’s performance was that each piece was really refreshing and delightful; there were no low points. Each time it was a pleasant surprise.”

This article was written with files from SOH Radio, a media partner of The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times is the proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour.
For more information, please see DivinePerformingArts.org
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