Epoch Times: Canadian MP Says Show Has Healing Effect

By Matthew Little

Jan 9th, 2009

'I find it very soothing,' Canadian MP Rob Oliphant said. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

TORONTO - For newly elected MP and former church minister Rob Oliphant, Divine Performing Arts served up "a feast for the eyes" that left him relaxed and rejuvenated.

"I'm enjoying it very much," he said during intermission. "I find it very soothing."

Mr. Oliphant, a dedicated community advocate, has worked with small and large groups to provide affordable housing, create jobs for new Canadians, reduce poverty and foster peace and social justice. He was the Lead Minister at Eglinton St. George's United Church in Toronto, one of the largest United Church congregations in Canada.

He has also supported the creation of housing and long-term care facilities for the elderly and low-income families. He graduated from the University of Toronto majoring in Commerce and Finance.

"I've been involved in healing arts and a healing ministry. The church I was at was very much involved in complimentary medicine," he said.

"I'm feeling that embodied on the stage. It feels very much like it's meant to make us well, and that's a good feeling."

"You can just sit there and allow yourself to be relaxed and enjoy it."

He said the colours of the show really stood out for him and he suspected they had healing qualities.

He was also moved by the energy of the dancers.

"They're young, it's a young young company, and they obviously look like they are having a lot of fun. You can see it in their eyes and in their smiles."

"There's no flagging, they simply keep going every time," he said, explaining that he attends many dance performances and often notices strain in the dancers as the shows go on, something absent in the Divine Performing Arts show.

"These dancers simply look like they are in pure joy . . . they're just having fun, it's quite nice to watch other people having fun."

"The bodies seem to form very symmetrical figures in ensemble ways," he continued. "When they were in the mountains, they actually form mountains. When there are valleys, and movement, and journeys, you actually can feel a river kind of pull. You can actually see how carefully ... they balance out, and they never misstep," he said.

"They know what they are doing - they're pros."

Mr. Oliphant said he also enjoyed the storytelling of the show and found it easier to follow than the many Western ballets.

"Sometimes I find with Western dance, I'm following a ballet and I'm thinking 'I really don't know what this story is.' It's relatively easy to follow this story. You can tell what it is."

"It's just very well balanced. I think that whole balance is part of it. Everything is beautifully balanced, so when they are on stage you can see a symmetry all the time and it's very classical that way."

Mr. Oliphant added that he enjoyed the synchronicity of the dancers and the way they harmonized.

"I think it's a wonderful way for us to approach a new culture we may not understand and do it ... in an artistic way," he said. "I'm simply enjoying it"

"There's a sense I have in the whole thing that they are very much telling a story but doing it subtlety and it's important," he said.

Divine Performing Arts takes its inspiration from 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation and takes as its mission to revive that country's ancient performing arts traditions.

Divine Performing Arts is made up of three companies, with the New York company staging the show in Toronto. This company will stage five more shows at Toronto's John Bassett Theatre before moving on to Montreal and then to New York City for a run at the famed Radio City Music Hall.

http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/content/view/10078/