City Councilor Cliff Jenkins and his wife, Liz, at the Divine Performing Arts show on Wednesday evening at Toronto's John Bassett Theatre. (Molly Jeng)
(Clearwisdom.net) TORONTO--"On behalf of mayor David Miller and the Toronto city council, let me welcome the Divine Performing Arts people to Toronto," said city councilor Cliff Jenkins during the intermission of the Divine Performing Arts show on Wednesday evening at Toronto's John Bassett Theatre.
"The performance tonight has been simply magnificent. It's been inspirational. The words of the one song 'Show me the truth so that my heart may be set free' are simply wonderful. It's a message for all of the world to understand and enjoy and believe and I simply say on behalf of the people in Toronto, this is wonderful for us to see this and thank you very much," Mr. Jenkins said.
Mr. Jenkins said the performers in the show, which portrays Chinese traditional culture through Chinese classical dance and music, are "extremely talented, they're wonderful--the costumes are wonderful and the message of inspiration is simply tremendous."
He was particularly impressed with the animated digital backdrops which are custom-designed to coordinate with the costumes, choreography, lighting, and storyline for each dance.
"It's simply beautiful. It's unique."
Mr. Jenkins also praised the caliber of the "magnificent" dancers.
"The dedication of the performers, the level of professionalism, the inspiration that they demonstrated, the creative performance, the integration of animation with the dance--I thought that was really unique and it was wonderful."
Along with an orchestra that combines Chinese and Western music and instruments, the show also features accomplished solo singers and musicians.
"The soloists--they were simply wonderful," said Mr. Jenkins. "The accompanist on the piano was terrific and the songs were wonderful. I really was very pleased to see the English subtitles so we could understand in English what they were singing. It was really, very, very good. And the costumes were beautiful, there's no question. The performers, in terms of the songs, their voices were wonderful, their level of training, their professionalism, it was magnificent."
He also enjoyed a dance piece called "Dignity and Compassion."
"The story of the guard who saw the light, and changed his attitude, his demeanor, that was really very good. That was inspirational."
The dance is one of two pieces set in contemporary China. It depicts a Falun Dafa prisoner of conscience being tortured to the brink of death. When her captor falls into a deep slumber, 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. Upon awakening, the policeman is filled with deep regret for what he has done, and promptly sets free the Falun Gong woman while asking her forgiveness.
In conclusion, Mr. Jenkins said he was delighted to have been invited to such a unique production. He added that everyone can benefit from the message of truth in the show.
"The message of truth, the message of understanding of the plight of some people in China I think is very important for us to understand, and so I think many of us learned more here about that tonight and quite honestly I thought it was really a wonderful performance."
Wednesday was Divine Performing Arts last performance in Toronto. The dance company will now move on to Montreal before going to New York's famed Radio City Music Hall.