E-card, Vancouver, 2008, Chinese Spectacular

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‘Chinese New Year Splendor’ ‘Never to forget’ : Violist Eric Shumsky’s Letter

The Epoch Times, Feb 01, 2008-

Eric Shumsky’s Letter on the ‘Chinese New Year Splendor’

The Chinese New Year Splendor is an evening of performance never to forget!

Having seen the first Winter Divine Performing Arts show at the Beacon it was with great pleasure to attend their equally spectacular show at Radio City on January 31.While I would have preferred the audience lights to be dimmed a bit more and the announcers’ microphones turned down a bit, I was mesmerized immediately with the incredibly felt performances from all the artists.

(photo: NEW YORK: Eric Shumsky, violist and son of Oscar Shumksy, outside Radio City Music Hall on December 31, 2008 /The Epoch Times)

Having been raised with a great father one of the consummate artists of violin the world has known (Oscar Shumsky 1917-2000, Shumskymusic.com) I was always told and understood that feeling above all is most important. Striving for cleanliness and exactness of performance is fine but the end result must be heartfelt and meaningful.

The spectacular array of talent from beautiful choreographed dance works, including Lady of the Moon inspired by a Chinese legend, to Forsythia In Spring , portraying the flower welcoming. Spring lightness and grace could not have been more aptly titled. Dancers danced suspended in thin air, as if on clouds!

Sets with changing and imaginative backgrounds superimposed dancing figures and beautiful scenery, colored by China’s profound past.

I loved especially the lead dance work of Michelle Ren, who is an artist the minute she walks on stage. Her grace is an understatement in elegance, simplicity and beauty, and her presence divine splendor.

I don’t have room here for all the great contributors. The music, a melange of east and west, quickly got to the underlying meaning behind each drama to be depicted. Junyi Tan, Xuan Tong, Yuan Gao, Yu Deng and Ningfang Chen must be given enormous credit for their original and special music.

And I would be leaving out a great part of the show. The elegant and artistic Erhu player: Xiaochun Qi.

I know most of the classical string players performing today and I dare say most of them could take lessons in the essence of expression. The little girl can express more feelings from her simple little instrument than years of conservatory and PR hype, and this includes most of the big name performers on today’s concert circuits. She really feels the music—the goose bumps on my arm proved it. I know Dad would have loved this kind of playing and feeling.

I will be back and bring my friends too!

Eric Shumsky

- Original report from the Epochtimes

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e-card for Chinese Spectacular 2008 Vancouver Canada

Celebrated Canadian Dancer: Chinese Spectacular ‘not just pretty pretty, it’s serious pretty’

By Jason Loftus, Epoch Times Toronto Staff, Jan 19, 2008-

TORONTO— Vanessa Harwood is among Canada’s most honoured dancers. After attending the Toronto premier of Divine Performing Arts’ Chinese New Year Spectacular at the Sony Centre she’ll be telling others about the beauty of the show.

Harwood was a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada. The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, once home of National Ballet of Canada, is her home, says Harwood. She danced there with the National Ballet in the 1960’s and 1970’s and her photo still hangs on the wall in the theatre.

(photo: Honoured Canadian ballet dancer Vanessa Harwood/ by the Epochtimes)

In 1984, Harwood was honoured for her accomplishments with the country’s top civilian honour, the Order of Canada.

She attended the show Friday with her husband, Hugh Scully, is a surgeon, professor, and former president of the Ontario Medical Association.

“There’s this sort of calmness that goes through it. . . this ethereal feeling,” said Harwood, describing the show. “Everything is sort of on one level. It has passion, but yet it’s calm. And it’s beautiful.”

“It’s not just pretty pretty. It’s serious pretty – there’s a lot of depth to it, and a lot of meaning. They take it very seriously. And it’s beautiful to see it.”

The Divine Performing Arts dance company has made it a mission to revive classical Chinese dance, a form of traditional culture that has been suppressed almost to the point of extinction in China by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Harwood spoke about how the Khmer Rouge communist dictatorship that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and killed a quarter of the population tried to destroy Cambodian dance but was unsuccessful.

“The Cambodian dance, they tried to kill it completely; one person survived and brought it back. Dance expresses your culture, so it will never go. It’s so important for dance as a culture to continue someone’s culture.”

“It’s like the lotus flower,” said Harwood, comparing the ability of dance to rise from adversity to that of the flower which rises from the mud to grow into something beautiful.

“If you can preserve it, it’s fantastic.”

“And there’s one other thing about dance – it has no language barrier. You can understand it no matter what your language is.”

With her past experience as a dancer Harwood said she was able to see the amount of rehearsal that went into the show. She could tell the backgrounds of many of the dancers. Besides the obvious training in classical Chinese dance Harwood identified that particular dancers were clearly trained in ballet, some in other dances.

“They’re so elegant and beautifully rehearsed. And it’s very nice to see the Chinese culture mixed with the classical dance.”

Her favourite performance depicted traditional Mongolian dancing. “There’s something mysterious about it,” she said.

Harwood is a member of the World Dance Alliance, which describes itself as the primary voice for dance and dancers throughout the world. The organization encourages the exchange of ideas and the awareness of dance in all its many forms. She said she plans to recommend the show to others in the organization.

“I’m going to have to tell them – they’ll have to see it when it comes to their town.”

“This is beautiful, it’s professional and very well done.”

The Toronto debut of the Chinese Spectacular performed before a packed Sony Centre, one of city’s top cultural venues and the largest soft-seat theatre in Canada. The audience appeared engrossed in the show, with frequent raptures of applause. An ovation sustained throughout the curtain call, with many rising to show their appreciation. Friday’s performance was the first of five shows in Toronto and one of twenty shows in Canada.

After Toronto, the Spectacular will continue on its global tour, which includes an 11-day run at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York. The show returns to Canada for shows in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary in the spring. By the end of its tour, the show will have played to a total live audience of 650,000 in over 60 cities and 14 countries.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts shows that will perform in over 60 cities worldwide in 2008. To find a show near you, please visit www.bestchineseshows.com.

- Original report from the Epochtimes

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Canadian Cabinet Minister Has ‘No Words to Describe’ Chinese Spectacular

By Matthew Hildebrand, Epoch Times Ottawa Staff, Jan 15, 2008-

Playing to a sold-out crowd in Ottawa on Sunday, the Chinese New Year Spectacular, performed by the Divine Performing Arts company, dazzled a full house of 2,100 at the National Arts Centre, prompting a standing ovation.

Ontario’s Minister of Community and Social Services and Francophone Affairs, Madeleine Meilleur, had high praise for the performance.

“This show is just wonderful,” she exclaimed. “The costumes are outstanding, the choreography is wonderful—it’s a wonderful history of China through singing, dancing, and the costumes.

(photo: Ontario Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur. /Ivan Ning/The Epoch Times)

“I am so pleased I had the opportunity to see this show tonight as it represents very well the Chinese culture and traditions, and it’s just outstanding. There are no words to describe exactly what I saw tonight.”

Divine Performing Arts says its performances celebrate human dignity and positive values, aiming to provide an experience of consummate beauty and goodness.

“The music was wonderful; the singer had a beautiful, beautiful, golden voice.”

“The message is very clear,” Meilleur added. “You see through the dance, the choreography, the pain that Chinese people have gone through.”

Hosted in Ottawa by New Tang Dynasty TV and the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, the Spectacular will visit Europe, Asia, the U.S., and Australia before returning to Canada in April and May.

- Source: the Epochtime

Chinese New Year Spectacular Brings Back True Culture, Says Former Canadaian Diplomat

By Rahul Vaidyanath, Epoch Times Ottawa Staff, Jan 15, 2008-

Brian McAdam, a former diplomat who has much experience and insight on Asia, attended Sunday’s Chinese New Year Spectacular at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa with his wife, Marie.

They attended last year’s show as well, and were just as impressed this time around.

“I loved the beauty of all the dancers, and of course, the costumes are extraordinary. I really enjoyed the drums, they were so dramatic, synchronized beyond belief, incredible,” said McAdam.

Professor Paul J. Davidson’s comments echoed that of the McAdams as well as the many VIPs in attendance on Sunday night.

“It’s an excellent show; it has a lot of values to it. I found it very enjoyable. It shows a lot of positive things for people to think about,” said Davidson, professor in the Department of Law at Carleton University and the chair of the Committee on Asian Studies.

The Spectacular features a combination of Western and Chinese musical instruments in a live orchestra. A digital background screen displayed the lyrics in English and French.

Culture Cannot Be Suppressed

The  Chinese New Year Spectacular portrays traditional Chinese culture through song, dance, and storytelling.

McAdam is well aware of the destruction of the Chinese culture, having lived in Hong Kong in 1968 when the Cultural Revolution was just beginning.

“Of course, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt to destroy the old culture. They were trying to destroy a culture that was almost 5,000 years old, and I thought they could never do that.”

“The communists tried to take the arts and the crafts and the music and the dance of the old culture and tried to impose their [will]. It was basically a cultural death,” he said.

MacAdam discussed how the situation in China relates to the types of suppression that have been seen in other countries and why the  Chinese New Year Spectacular is so special.

“Nazi Germany turned out to be a death cult. The Soviet Union tried the same thing. They tried to destroy what the Russian culture was all about. Unfortunately these tyrants survived for decades, but ultimately this human spirit brings back the true culture of the society. It’s marvelous to see again.”

Despite efforts to interfere with the show’s success by the Chinese communist regime each year through its embassies and consulates, the Spectacular continues to grow and thrive.

“They don’t want the show to have success because, again, they are a death cult. That’s what they are and they don’t want to have people realize there’s another way of living.” By the end of its global tour, an expected 650,000 people in over 60 cities will have seen the performances by Divine Performing Arts.

- Source: the epochtime

Ottawa ‘Lucky’ to Host ‘Chinese Spectacular’, Says Canadian Minister

By Cindy Chan, Epoch Times Ottawa Staff, Jan 13, 2008-

OTTAWA—The nation’s capital was treated to an impressive helping of traditional Chinese culture with the Canadian debut of New Tang Dynasty Television’s Chinese New Year Spectacular at the National Arts Centre tonight.

Canadian Environment Minister John Baird ( photo at right)  came to the pre-show VIP reception, attended by more than 100 guests, including government officials and representatives, show sponsors and leaders from the business, artistic, university, and Chinese communities.

Addressing the reception, Baird said, “I don’t think we realize how lucky we are, in the Ottawa area, in the National Capital Region, to have the performance stop here.”

Divine Performing Arts, the New York-based company presenting the show, says that beyond the aesthetics it tries to convey the traditional moral values and the true culture of China.

The show will tour over 60 cities on four continents, with stops in five other Canadian cities to follow the Canadian premiere in Ottawa.

Baird said the show presents “a very different perspective of China and the values that are at the root of a lot of Chinese civilization, which is exciting culturally and intellectually.”

“It’s certainly an exciting show, and like all cultural performances it has a great message in it. The music, the dancing, the stories behind it are amazing.”

“It’s a great performance,” he said.

Every year the Chinese communist regime attempts to interfere with the show. Last year the Chinese embassy in Ottawa went so far as to issue a statement saying it disapproved of “the participation in the ‘New Year Spectacular’ by the officials of any country in any form.” The embassy and consulates also made a great deal of publicity efforts to urge the public not to attend.

Over the last two months several U.S. officials have made public letters from Chinese consulates in the U.S. warning them not to attend the shows or to provide support or congratulatory greetings in any form.

“I didn’t receive a letter myself, but I was here last year and I am very happy to be here again this year,” said Baird.

Canada’s Governor General Michaëlle Jean sent a greeting letter, as did Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“I have no doubt that audiences will delight in the exceptional showcase of colourful, handmade costumes, brilliant choreography and outstanding musical compositions,” said Harper in his congratulatory message.

Over ten other greetings were received from other Canadian government officials, including Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley, Minister of State and Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity) Jason Kenney, Chair of the Conservative Caucus Rahim Jaffer, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario David Onley, and Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien.

Baird wished all Chinese Canadians “a Happy New Year and the very best for health and prosperity over the next year.”

 The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts shows that will perform in over 60 cities worldwide in 2008. To find a show near you, please visit www.bestchineseshows.com.

Source: the epochtimes