Appreciative Audience Gives Divine Performing Arts Standing Ovation in London

The opening night of Divine Performing Arts (DPA) 2009 World Tour at the New London Theatre, was lauded with a standing ovation on Tuesday, March 3. The discerning West End audience responded very enthusiastically to every single piece in the DPA show, warmly applauding the dance solos and loudly cheering as they rose to a long standing ovation for the two curtain calls.

Mr. Zafiropulo has a special relationship with Chinese culture. Now retired, he and his first cousin ran a shipping company, carrying cargo to and from China, doing a great deal of maritime business around China and other Far Eastern countries. He said, "I was always very interested in Chinese civilization. My wife is half Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, but she is from China, originally and [so are] her ancestors. So I have always been fascinated by the Chinese culture."

After watching the show, he said, "I enjoyed the show and I wish that you have a lot of success!" He felt it important that people become, "more aware of the conditions in China and the spiritual side of this old civilization." "I thought the story was very interesting. I thought the philosophy is very interesting." The retired shipping company director wished the performers success, and said, "It's very enjoyable, very exciting!"

Incredible! Different from anything I've seen before

Mr. and Mrs. Favennec were enthusiastic after seeing the performance. Mr. Favennec, a Financial Engineer, had never seen classical Chinese dance before, and he was thoroughly delighted. "It was wonderful and different than anything I've seen before. It was very lovely, it's incredible that you can have so much color and so much movement and so much harmony together. So I'm very pleased. It's very graceful and beautiful."

"It's the movement and colors that are most impressive. That these, like flowers; one time where you had the women dancing, they were exactly like flowers opening, which was lovely," he said referring to the performance titled, "The Udumbara's Bloom."

Mrs. Favennec echoed his appreciation, "I thoroughly enjoyed that one particularly, and the last one with the Tibetan dances. Yes, it was really lovely. It's very well worth seeing."

Mr. Favennec shared his feeling about the music, "It's very unusual, although they are classical instruments, it sounds very Chinese. It is the most surprising thing, it's very well done together. Very well orchestrated and well organized."

"The best show I've ever seen"

"I love this," said Ms. Gray, a building designer who had come to see the show with her daughter. "It's the best show I've ever seen." "It's kind of like being in another culture but in the middle of London--it's amazing! It's very outstanding actually." "I'm just fascinated by the culture," added her daughter Ruby, who is learning Mandarin at school.

Ms. Gray, a building designer and her daughter

Mr. Patel, who works in Financial Services and Property Investments, accompanied Ms. Mortynska, a fashion designer. Ms. Mortynska is originally from Poland. "We've got friends that are Chinese and they told us to come and have a look."

Mr. Patel, who works in Financial Services and Property Investments, and Ms. Mortynska, a fashion designer

Mr. Patel commented, "It was really nice, it was beautiful!" He liked many aspects of the performances. "I think it was obviously the dancing, and some part of the costumes, the music was beautiful as well."

Ms. Mortynska also loved the dancing, and as a fashion designer, she appreciated the costumes. "I liked it very much, thank you. I really liked the dresses and the costumes. They're really beautiful, very beautiful!" She added that she loved the colors. "Very nice and bright and they really were spring-time colours."