WASHINGTON—Divine Performing Arts (DPA) Chinese New Year Spectacular closed on Feb. 15, after a six-day run at the Kennedy Center Opera House. The audience applauded throughout the performance and honored the New York-based company at the end with a standing ovation and curtain call.
Many at the show had never experienced anything like the DPA show, a rediscovery and renewal of humankind’s true, rightful heritage presented through Chinese classical dance and music.
Among them was a former consultant Mr. Hoteling and his nine-year-old granddaughter, Julia, who was learning tap dancing.
“It was good, I liked it. I liked how they had all those ribbons and how they did different dances with them,” the young dancer said.
Mr. Hoteling agreed. “Very nice show, we loved the show very much. Very descriptive of the culture and ... some things have happened historically—we just liked it very much. We understood the suppression of the people and the rising up of the people up into the culture, and coming into the modern times,” he said.
Story-based dances are one of DPA’s trademarks, inspired by the legends and values of a centuries-old China before its erosion under communism. Ancient legends of heroism and modern day stories of courage are played out in dance, song, and intense drama, while groundbreaking music combines the best of Chinese and Western composition.
“I liked the piece where the mountain falls down and nobody believed the man [Monk Ji Gong Abducts the Bride].
Monk Ji Gong Abducts the Bride brings alive the beloved Chinese figure who did good works in unusual, if not down-right crazy-seeming ways. In this vignette, the monk foretells that a landslide is imminent, but local residents attending a wedding do not heed him.
Mr. Hoteling noted that only after the monk’s prophesy comes true, do the villagers believe him.
Turning to his granddaughter, he asked, “Julia, did you like big fans? A ”wonderful dance” used to usher in the spring season [Welcoming Spring].
Julia: “Yes, that was cool how they did all the things with the fans.”
“I took away a much greater understanding of the Chinese culture and the history—the spirituality that I didn’t understand before, and I am grateful,” Ms. Erickson continued. “The values of the Chinese are renowned worldwide. We can take away from this, that our values, our cultures, are all connected in a greater way.”
Ms. Erickson enjoyed every performance and also loved the fan dance, and the opening, saying, “[I] loved the drums—it was all just fantastic—very, very moving. I wanted to get into the whole spirit of the occasion and celebrate with Chinese people their history.”
Another audience member, Mr. Konely, a hair stylist. came specifically to bring his seven-year-old daughter and said: “Aside from being beautiful and breathtaking in terms of color and movement, I think it was great for her to see—or anyone here, to see two things: One was the diversity of tradition and how many traditions there [are], how specific they were, and the desire for compassion, and hope in the future. I think each of those things are very constructive.”
He continued, “You'll have greater compassion if you have greater understanding where people come from, and there’s greater hope for the future if you can bring that compassion forward. It communicates that very effectively in a really visual fashion. She loved it as well, by the way.”
Although Mr. Konely admitted that he didn’t know much about dance, he did appreciate both is subtlety and power: “The work looked very intricate and ... given how much movement was required and how sometimes the movement was borderline athletic—tumbling and things of that nature—the fact that everything remains perfectly in place and looks flawless means someone worked very hard to do that,” he added.
With reporting from NTDTV
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