United States: Audience Comments from Divine Performing Arts' Opening Performance of Chinese New Year Splendor

Divine Performing Arts presented a grand opening performance of the Chinese New Year Splendor on January 30th, 2008, at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Mary, a social worker from New York said, "I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was lovely, it was really very moving."

Referring to the program, "The Risen Lotus Flower," she said, "I was in tears in the scene with the three women, it moved me very deeply.

"I loved the drums, they were fantastic and I loved it all, really. I loved the singing."

She added, "The words came up on screen so that I knew what they meant. My son has told me a lot about the persecution in China and I believe that everyone should practice freely what they believe in. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. The show was very beautiful."

Ester Winter, a tourist from Denmark came to the show after learning about it from a flyer handed to her in the street.

She said, "The scenery is very beautiful. The drummers were fantastic and so were the dances and the costumes. The show was wonderful, marvelous."

Jose, a police officer from New Jersey who was seeing the show for the first time got tickets from his daughter's dance school.

"It's very good, the costumes are very colourful," he said. "Its different, we experienced another culture and got to see what the history and all that comes with it, especially through the performing arts."

He especially liked the drums, "I liked the drums, the drums are pretty good. Those are like war drums, right? Is that not where they came from? It's very interesting."

"They tell the story through the dance and the songs. Even if you don't understand everything, you can get the emotion behind it. It's good to experience other cultures."

Marlene from Colombia learned about the show one week ago. "[I liked] the dance and the music. The drums, I love the drums. The dresses, the fabric and the colors are wonderful. I enjoyed this show, everything was wonderful."