NTDTV's Chinese New Year Spectacular opened in Brisbane, Australia with a matinee show, delighting young and old.
The children in the audience were particularly moved by a dance called "Candlelight Vigil", which featured a very young Chinese orphan, dressed in white, surrounded by dancers who displayed their compassion towards her by encircling her. The little girl represented all of the children orphaned in China due to the regime's torture of their parents for their spiritual practice.
The child's innocence and vulnerability touched the heart of many children in the audience, including Natasha Stevanovic, 11, who attended the Spectacular with her grandma, her sisters and a friend. The candlelight vigil was one of her favourites. "I thought it had so much meaning. When the little girl walked across the stage, I thought of all the children who had lost their parents through torture. It was amazing what they did with the candles."
Natasha's friend Julieanne Peters, 9, was also impressed by the Candlelight Vigil performance. "I've never seen a girl so little dance like that. It made me feel sad, but also happy. I felt sad because her parents died, but happy because she got to dance with all the others. I haven't seen a live show before and it made me feel happy. I liked the "Mulan" performance – I think Disney changed theirs a bit. I feel sorry for all my school friends because they missed the show."
Natasha said her other favourite was the exploding ribbons. "They looked like butterflies. If I had to sum up the whole show in one word, it would be 'Wow!' It was very, very good, the most amazing performance I've seen."
Natasha's grandma, Anna Stevanovic, was equally enthralled. She walked out of the show beaming. "It was absolutely fantastic. I can't even express in my own language how beautiful it was, let alone express it in English. The costumes were so rich, the colours so varied. The message in the song Finding Truth, 'When disaster struck it doesn't favour rich or poor', was so meaningful – all the words in the song were so meaningful."
Julianne's mother, Tania Roberts, felt that all the performances came together to give her a sense of being there. "I got a vision of how great it would have been at that time, so much of it gets lost in the modern world. I saw such good values expressed throughout," she said, "I think it's great that people dedicate themselves to maintaining the traditions and passing down the wisdom so it's not lost."
"The song about Tiananmen Square brought tears to my eyes. So did the candlelight vigil performance. To me it represented a bridge from the old China to the modern China and showed what the future can be like. I saw the little girl as the bearer of wisdom into the future. If you don't show the child, you don't show the future."
"I think a lot of people close their eyes to the painful things happening, a child never closes their eyes, but adults do that. The arts are such a powerful way to express a message to people."
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