NEW YORK—Ms. McAllister has produced some of the greatest shows on Broadway and is very familiar with the amount of effort that goes into creating a world class show. Her Broadway credits include Coram Boy, Spamalot (Tony Award), Hairspray (Tony Award), Metamorphoses, The Crucible and The Iceman Cometh. The Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Splendor at Radio City Music Hall gave Ms. McAllister an opportunity to experience ancient Chinese culture through a fusion of classical Chinese dance, singing, and a live orchestra.
“It’s just beautiful, it’s lush, the movement is enchanting,” she said.
“I am amazed at just how delicate it is and clean and pure. It’s something really so simple and yet there’s something so deep and rich about the movements.”
A classically trained dancer, Ms. McAllister resonated with the quality and depth displayed by the performers.
“I think you can really see how the dancers feel every movement that they are doing. You can see how it comes from a deeper place. I was a dancer, quite some time ago, and I remember those moments when you really connected with your movement. It kind of took you to a higher level and you can see how that happens here with these dancers who are so connected with their movements that it’s like breath. It looks so effortless and so organic to them, it looks like it’s just a part of them.”
When asked about the difficulty of those movements, Ms. McAllister laughed and said, “I’m glad it’s them doing it.”
“When I say the simplicity of it, sometimes the most challenging things are the things that are the most boiled down and simple. When you see something that looks effortless you know that a tremendous amount of effort went into it.”
Ms. McAllister said she was also struck by the character of Chinese classical dance.
“It’s that really delicate quality. You can see each piece related to nature, you see how a lot of the movement and a lot of the concept behind the movement came from nature in some way.”
She said she was also impressed by the synchronicity of the dancers.
“They move as one organism, and it is nice because you don’t focus on any one person. You can tell that they have all spent enough time with each other that they start to move as one.”
She said the choreography of the dances was “very unique.”
“It powerful, but it is also gentle, it has a sort of dual qualities that seem to complement each other really well.”
But there was also something about the dancers themselves that she noticed, something they didn’t have—ego. She said at many of the performances she has seen in the past have dancers that are “trying tricks and trying to shine a little more brighter, and here you just see really pure and beautiful movement. You see one sort of organism working together and it feels like it’s for the larger piece rather than for each individual to kind of stand out.”
She said the dancers seemed to have a “real connection to what they are doing.”
Ms. McAllister said it was her first time to see a live orchestra like the Divine Performing Arts Orchestra combined with a dance performance.
The Divine Performing Arts Orchestra begins with a classical Western orchestra as its foundation and augments this with traditional Chinese instruments, enabling its compositions to at once mine the potential of Western orchestral music and yet be rich in Chinese qualities.
“It’s really beautiful. It’s really lovely and a couple of pieces were just haunting. It was really sweeping and lovely and it’s a very comfortable mix if you’re not used to hearing a Chinese sound, and if it’s not familiar to your ear then this is a really nice introduction, because it’s paired with something you are more familiar with.”
The Splendor also includes an erhu soloist. The erhu is China’s two-stringed violin, an instrument with a hauntingly beautiful sound and surprising range. Ms. McAllister said that performance was a highlight for her.
“It was gorgeous. I was about to start crying as she kept going, it was so beautiful. That actually made me want to dance too, just in a room by myself. It was really sweeping, and haunting and soulful.”
Her favorite piece? “I think it was probably back in the beginning with the ladies in pink because that was the first time really that I saw the movement and got a “awe” this is what it’s about, so it kind of stands out.”
“It was beautiful, really lovely, and delicate, I keep using that word ‘delicate’ because there was something really touching about that, and an offered message in a very gentle and peaceful way.”
Divine Performing Arts stages two more shows at Radio City on Sunday before continuing on with its 2009 World Tour. For more information visit www.DivinePerformingArts.org
