ATLANTA—Ms. Trotter, executive director of a stress-control center, enjoyed Divine Performing Arts (DPA) in Atlanta on Dec. 20 with her two granddaughters. “It was just so beautiful. It’s picturesque—the colors, the scenery, the creativity, the theme of love and humanity, and hope, and truth,” she said.
“I loved the dances and the costumes and the movement. I think they [her granddaughters] will take home part of the Chinese culture. Their great, great grandpa is Chinese. My grandmother and father were Chinese. They came over to work on the railroad in Georgia. It’s part of our history.”
Ms. Trotter said she loved the spiritual component: “I do qigong and understand we are all connected to the creator and have the power to heal ourselves through breathing and movement. I’m very connected to spirituality. … I think that [we are] all one and connected to one another. I love the theme because that’s what I think it is. In the universe, there is no separation.”
She said that the performance enhanced her understanding of Chinese culture. “The learning in terms of the medicine, the mind/body, it was just reaffirming in terms of Chinese traditional medicines and the herbs and the practices. Just a display of it is just so beautifully put together. I could not leave [the theater].”
Speaking of the performers, she said, “Excellent, excellent. Bravo, bravo, bravo. Well done, well done. It was humbling to be in the midst of [it], to see such a sight of beauty and creativity. I’m honored.”
Her granddaughter Yasriyyah said that she liked everything, especially Mulan (Mulan Joins the Battle) and all the dances.
Considering other holiday shows she has seen, Ms. Trotter said, “I’ve never seen anything like this before—the imagination, the creativity. … And in the persecution and then [the father] ascended to heaven and then the angels came down. The way they depicted it, I have never seen anything so amazingly done. Even when the god came out of the stone and moved the stone and showed them, the piece was amazing. … I don’t think anybody has seen anything like it. I go to shows very often to see my cultural heritage, and I haven’t seen anything like this.”
Ms. Trotter particularly liked “the flowers, the ribbon dance—the flowers of the spring Welcoming Spring was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen depicted.”
“Chinese culture is distinctive, original. There’s beauty in all art, there’s history in all art, and there’s truth in all art. There’s a connectedness of the inner beauty that intertwines with the creativity that we have and pass down through the generations. And how that’s something to be treasured and to be honored, and to be beheld by all—the beauty, the gift of … the culture,” she said.
She said she would describe the show to her friends as “awesome, awesome—something that you’ve never seen before in your life. And it’s a must-go if it’s anywhere near us again. It’s something you have to come and see—just breathless, breathless, indescribable, beautiful—it’s authentic!”
For more information please visit DivinePerformingArts.org
