(The Epoch Times)

(Clearwisdom.net) Many braved the cold weather to attend the performance of the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) Chinese New Year Spectacular held on January 24 at the historic New Jersey State Theater.

Accompanied by a live audience and playing to a full house, the DPA Touring Company presented a mix of ancient and modern Chinese culture and belief. The audience responded with enthusiastic applause.

Professor Sascha Tenenbaum, a physics professor currently at Princeton University while on leave from his university in Italy, shared his thoughts on the show.

"I appreciated it very much," he said. "I liked it--it was a different kind of show. I saw the Chinese ballet several years ago in Italy, and this is a sort of modern-classical ballet, which I appreciate."

While it is in classical Chinese dance that the artists of DPA have their foundational training, the company's production numbers include Chinese ethnic and folk dance, making for an utterly unique vision of traditional Chinese culture that is at once both faithful and innovative. The resulting numbers are something audiences of any background can readily appreciate.

Professor Tenenbaum could not rightly say which part impressed him most because there were so many different components, but he leaned more toward the traditional pieces.

"Some are revisited and rendered in a way that can be appreciated by someone like me, who doesn't know classical Chinese culture but still has a perception of what the Chinese culture is. So I think this is a well done experiment, making the traditional Chinese culture available for people who are neither Chinese nor traditional, like me."

Classical Chinese dance is a distinctive dance form with a remarkably rich history. With roots reaching back millennia and stretching across the diverse peoples and regions of China, classical Chinese dance is not merely a rich aesthetic tradition but also a fascinating window into the cultural heritage of China and its people.

"Well, underlying Chinese society there are deep values, traditional values, that are maybe not so easily expressed nowadays in China, but still present," the professor said. "And much of Chinese culture actually is underpinned by those values."

A physician from the Middlesex Surgery Center came to the show with his wife and daughter. This was the first show of Chinese culture he had ever seen. When asked his impression, he replied, "Oh, it was beautiful! The choreography, the music--fabulous!" When asked if he had a favorite part, he replied, "The choreography and the dancing! The costumes! It was just awesome! Everything, everything about it!" When asked if he thought the show had a message, the doctor replied, "It's spiritual. Peace, kindness, welcome the New Year, Chinese mythology.... It was beautiful. I just loved everything about it! The stories--everything about it."

The guiding mission of Divine Performing Arts is to rediscover and renew humanity's true, rightful cultural heritage. The company thus creates and performs works that center upon the true, divinely-bestowed culture of mankind and seeks to provide an experience of consummate beauty and goodness.