Internationally Acclaimed Choreographer: 'It Was Just Beautifully Done'

SAN FRANCISCO— The Epoch Times had the opportunity to interview the internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Mr. Carlos Carvajal who attended Friday night's performance of the Chinese New Year Spectacular at the Orpheum Theatre.

Mr. Carvajal, currently an artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, has choreographed more than 200 works for ballet, opera, and television during his illustrious career. Mr. Carvajal shared some of his thoughts and impressions about the show with us.

"It's a good show!" he said.

Having a profound appreciation for dance and choreography and for combining visuals with ballet, he was particularly impressed with the Spectacular's use of background visuals to complement the dancing.

Mr. Carvajal said: "Between the visuals on the screen and the dancing, it made it very, very profound, very deep. Beautiful!"

Mr. Carvajal is well known for being one of the earliest choreographers to use visuals in San Francisco, making his first multimedia show at the Opera House, back in the 1960's. It was a 40-minute-long ballet called Genesis 70 .

Mr. Carvajal added: "Visuals could be distracting, but in this case, I found that they were complementary. If the visuals start to move, you start to watch them and you lose the dance, but in this case, they emanated from the dance, or focused on it. I really was impressed with that, it was just beautifully done!"

He particularly liked the emotional effect the visuals added to one program where the scene in an old temple is transformed: "I was just… Oh! It was so beautifully done. It was just so fine!"

Mr. Carvajal is a sixth-generation theatrical artist, and began his dance career at the San Francisco Ballet. He then traveled to Europe and other countries, dancing with several companies including the International Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas and Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas. During his career in Europe, he choreographed over 78 works for ballet, opera, and television.

Mr. Carvajal received the first San Francisco Art Commission Award of Honor for Outstanding Work in Choreography and Dance in 1981. In 1986 was awarded the Isadora Duncan Award for a lifetime of significant work and received the Critics Circle Award in 1990.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts shows that will perform in over 60 cities worldwide in 2008. To find a show near you, please visit www.bestchineseshows.com.