Newspaper Publisher Hails Expressiveness of Chinese Classical Dance

PURCHASE, N.Y.—In Purchase the Divine Performing Arts show was greeted with enthusiasm by Mr. Sturman, a newspaper publisher and radio broadcaster. He attended with his wife and daughter, and said, “It’s wonderful, it’s something new for me. I’ve never been to China in my life, and now I want to go more than ever.”

Myths and legends from China’s ancient past and current day come to life through Chinese classical dance—a hugely extensive dance system stemming from the divinely inspired heritage that is China’s five-millennia-old culture.

Mr. Sturman compared the expressiveness of Chinese dance to other forms he had seen. “It seems that in the precision and the movements, they express themselves so much more than we do. Just one little movement says so much. I liked the flower that blooms every three thousand years [The Udumbara’s Bloom], that was a whole story, it was wonderful.”

The deeper resonances of traditional Chinese culture imbue a dancer’s movements with rich expressive power. The dancer is thus capable of not only portraying a given figure’s disposition or mood, but even the vivid expressions unique to a certain age, whatever the land or time.

Mr. Sturman said he would have to think more about the meaning behind The Udumbara’s Bloom, “I think this transcends all languages and all cultures ... wonderful.”

He thought that in the dance Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution he could relate Eastern culture to his life experiences. “We understand the story, those that believe in an afterlife is very similar to what we say, and those that don’t, we can understand it anyways.”

In this dance, a father is persecuted in China for practicing the traditional meditation system of Falun Gong. A message of hope shines through with the longstanding Chinese belief that good people are ultimately rewarded, even if not in this lifetime.

Mr. Sturman ended with this wish: “Well, I wish you would bring more of this to America, because there’s different types of dance and more cultural involvements. It was a wonderful opportunity for us.”

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. Please see DivinePerformingArts.org for more information.