Epoch Times Staff Dec 29, 2008
Ms. Mimi Boheme (R), an artist and art educator, attends the show with her parents, Nancy and Don, while visiting San Diego.
SAN DIEGO--The Divine Performing Arts International Company successfully
completed its fourth and final show on Sunday Dec. 28 at the San Diego Civic
Theatre. During intermission we had a chance to talk to Ms. Boheme, an art
educator of a school district in Nevada, who came with her parents, Nancy and
Don.
According to her, the show displayed the values of traditional Chinese culture.
"One aspect of it was that it was so diverse. Because there were so many
different aesthetics, you had the Himalayan Plateau aesthetic in the last piece,
and then you had the Indian Buddhism, the Shakyamuni Buddhist, which is sort of
different than some depictions of Buddha.
"And also being able to have religious references, which I don't think are
so welcome in modern day China. And references to spirituality, and mixing that
into the dance performances.
"Being able to reference this just massive, massive history with poetry and
everything from Confucianism to Daoism, so many different eclectic things. They
are all pretty clearly expressed in the dance pieces that we saw."
Being an art teacher, Ms. Boheme noticed some unique aspects of the Divine
Performing Arts style and choreography. Her background in watching many
productions in Las Vegas and San Francisco also gave her a good sense of
quality.
"One thing that I noticed ... the male dancers seemed to have a very
distinct sense of rhythm. And the male dancers were also very masculine; I mean
they were male dancers!
"It's interesting because the way the women dance is ... almost look like
moving water, like leaves on water and the way that the men dance look like
leaves on wind. It was different.
"Dancing is how you survive, it is the spirit," said Nancy. "When
things were going bad for me and Don, we would say 'Let's go dancing!' There's
more to it than just the technical; there is the spirit, and that's what makes
the Chinese survive for centuries. It's what's inside."
Ms. Boheme also noted the unity and harmony involved in the dances.
"The way the fabric was used and the costumes, that was such an important
part of that unity, because even if the dancers weren't physically touching, the
fabric would come together as part of the choreography."
When asked about the message she saw in the dances, she said, "It was real
celebratory. And then you had that one piece, the persecuted father
["Persecuted on a Sacred Path"], which was the most positively intense
piece of dancing I have ever seen."
"I have a doctor who defected when she was working at the diabetes clinic
in Harvard in an exchange program. She saw Tiananmen Square on television, and
she defected. It took five years to get her husband over and 15 years--she
didn't see her son for 15 years!"
"She had an uncle that she said just disappeared because he would speak out
against the Chinese government. ... She said 'I love China, but I don't like the
Chinese government.'"
Ms. Boheme said, "To be able to have that sense of physical endurance you
would have to be motivated by more than 'I'm going to dance a really great
dance.'"
Source http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/content/view/9329/
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Category: Shen Yun Performing Arts
