Company Director and Former Dancer: "The expression is divine"
(Clearwisdom.net) MELBOURNE, Australia--"I think it is utterly brilliant. The colors, the movement, the expression is divine. It's beautiful," said former dancer Gayle Maxwell during intermission at the Arts Centre State Theatre on Friday, May 28, 2010.
Ms. Maxwell is a company director and author. After her friends saw Shen Yun Performing Arts in Canberra they told her, "You've got to go!"
Shen Yun is a New York-based company touring the world with presentations of Chinese classical dance, vocalists and a live orchestral fusion of Western and Chinese instruments, providing a unique insight into traditional Chinese culture, with a thought-provoking and moving production.
Ms. Maxwell said she carefully chooses the word "divine" to describe the performance she saw on Friday night. She said it is because she saw an element of "core beauty" come through from the dancers who, she said, "Are just connected to something that is divine, that is beautiful."
"I think we all have a message from heaven. I think we all have that within us. I think this show expresses it so beautifully from each individual. I was just saying that you can see the expression in every performer. You can see they are in a space of love. You can see it. And it comes out through them."
"The movement just expresses love. And that's what I think we need to connect more to on this planet now."
Ms. Maxwell said because she is a former dancer she could see the love expressed by each performer. "I used to dance, and that's I guess why I see the love in the movements and expression in the movement. It's more than just dance, that's just it."
Ms. Maxwell used to do "dance contemporary", which she described as being "like ballet" but "more expressive." However, she said that she was never as good as the Shen Yun dancers, "They're good."
She lamented that more from Melbourne's Art community didn't know about Shen Yun being in town.
She said, "I wish everybody in Melbourne knew that this was here. I told a few people ... I think the arts community would have been here. I don't know why they didn't know it was here. But they would have loved it, it's just beautiful."
She added, "We have to tell other people because it's just extraordinary."
Ms. Maxwell said that although she no longer dances she does do Tai Chi. She expressed interest in looking into Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice whose persecution in China is depicted in Shen Yun in contemporary pieces entitled "Nothing Can Block the Divine Path" and "Astounding Conviction." Although she didn't know a lot about it she said, "I'm just called to it, it feels good, it feels beautiful."
Mark Pheely with Gayle Maxwel at intermission
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