(Clearwisdom.net) INDIANAPOLIS--Continuing on its 2009 World Tour, Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Spectacular performed at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis on Saturday January 31. Ms. Lynch, a professional artist and art teacher from an out-of-town University was amongst the audience.

Ms. Lynch said the performance was wonderful and very colorful and she particularly liked the diversity of the show, "The multi-dimensional way they showed it using film [the digital backdrops]. You know the dancers, the live orchestra, the costuming was gorgeous."

The digital backdrop truly impressed Ms. Lynch. To her it expanded the dimension of the performance beyond the stage.

"I thought that that was beautiful and very clever. You get a stronger sense of the stories. I was not aware of some of the myths and the stories they were telling, so it was really neat to kind of get different views and know some of the richer history."

The backdrops at each Divine Performing Arts show brings classical Chinese dance into the 21st century, giving each scene an added visual depth and grandeur. Each backdrop is custom-designed to match exactly a given dance's costumes, storyline and choreography.

When asked what her favorite performance was Ms. Lynch said the final piece, "Dignity and Compassion."

"I thought it culminated very well and gave a final message of truth, peace, and justice. I think that some of the more serious programs dealt with persecution of one's beliefs, they were kind of hard to watch, but still very important, to give as kind of a reminder of what's going on in China," she said.

"Dignity and Compassion" is a narrative set in a prison in China, where a Falun Dafa practitioner is a prisoner of conscience, cruelly tortured to the brink of death. When her captor falls into a deep slumber afterward, he is visited by an otherworldly vision in which guardian deities seek to claim his life as repayment for his terrible act. The persecuted believer appears then as a Bodhisattva and is moved by compassion to have the man's life spared. The act of mercy is not without a message, however, that terrible consequences follow from persecuting these innocent persons. Upon awakening, the policeman is filled with deep regret for what he has done, and promptly sets free the Falun Dafa practitioner while asking her forgiveness.

Ms. Lynch commented that the message she came away with was that "The arts persevere through everything, through the toughest times. We have these deep cultural relations and it's through the arts that people can persevere. I think that they [DPA] gave a rich, colorful perspective in the way they gave a kind of true beauty and pureness of beauty. You know on stage you get a sense that they all really embody it. It came through very successfully."

Another piece that Ms. Lynch commented on was "The Udumbara's Bloom," which she thought had the highest artistic value.

"I think, the flower in the first half of the show. It was very symbolic. Of what it stands for and the skill of the dancers embodied that. It was great."

The legendary Udumbara flower of Buddhist lore blossoms but once every three thousand years. Rich with spiritual import, 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 in a sumptuous display of reverent beauty.

An impression of the show that Ms. Lynch said she will take with her is "To have that encouragement, to never stop searching for the truth and for beauty and never stop refining your skill, because within that you can find peace and you can find your true self, and to stay true to yourself."

Divine Performing Arts, a New York-based performance company founded by leading Chinese artists, is seeking to revive China's traditional culture and present it to audiences around the world through Chinese classical dance and music.

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Category: Shen Yun Performing Arts