CUPERTINO, Calif.—“I knew it was going to be wonderful, but oh my gosh, it even blew me away.” This was Ms. Toleski’s reaction after the first Divine Performing Arts (DPA) Chinese New Year Spectacular performance at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on Jan 13.
Ms. Toleski is a former competitive ballroom dancer so could appreciate the skills of the dancers.
“I just couldn’t even envision what it was, the sets were, the costumes were gorgeous, those kids were just so talented. I used to dance, and I appreciate everything they did.”
Classical Chinese dance has its own complete set of training methods in foundational skills, a strict regimen for perfecting bearing and form, and means of training for skill sets such as jumps, turns, and flips, as well as extremely demanding aerial techniques, culminating in an enormous dance system.
“That one gal was balanced on one leg doing all sorts of things for I don’t how long, I started to count the seconds, because I have never seen anybody on one leg that long. I fall over after for two seconds and she must have been on that one leg for 15 seconds, which is just amazing,” said Ms. Toleski.
Ms. Toleski said, “I never even looked at my watch, not even once. I was carried away by the whole show … there is just something magical about the show. I thought it was wonderful, the stories were very clear, they danced them beautifully, the choreographer was super.”
Ms. Toleski said she enjoyed the dance The Udumbara’s Bloom.
“I thought that was a truly elegant performance. There was just an ethereal quality to it and it was so incredibly graceful. … I thought it was just gorgeous, just elegant.”
The legendary Udumbara flower of Buddhist lore blossoms once every three thousand years. Its unfolding is said to herald the coming of a great sage or enlightened being. True to the legend’s origins, these bejeweled dancers take inspiration from the Buddhist Dunhuang caves of Western China as well as Indian dance.
Ms. Toleski said, “The stories were good, the music was good, whoever planned the whole show out just did a fabulous job on it.”
The guiding mission of Divine Performing Arts is to rediscover and renew humanity’s true, rightful cultural heritage. The company thus creates and performs works that center upon the true, divinely bestowed culture of humankind, and seeks to provide an experience of consummate beauty and goodness.
“I thought there was a nice mixture of east and west in everything that they did.” She said. What a joy!” She exclaimed
The company’s performances include as well Chinese ethnic and folk dance, making for an utterly unique vision of Chinese traditional culture that is at once both faithful and innovative.
“Some of the body positions are different. It made it look so effortlessly, almost like they are on rollers. It is so smooth and flawless the way they moved—but that is different than most Western dances. Western dance does not move like that,” said Ms. Toleski.
Ms. Toleski would like to share the DPA with everyone saying, “I will highly recommend it to everybody, it really was good. I want to make this an annual event for me.”
“Hey you guys, I have something really neat, you’ve got to go next year. Just give me the money and I will make the reservations.”
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information visit divineperformingarts.org
