STOCKHOLM, Sweden—News of the arrival of the Chinese Spectacular in Stockholm traveled all the way to Gottenberg, 500 km away, where dance students at Angereds Gymnasiet School got wind of it.
Eight dancers made the journey and spent the night in the capital city in order to see the Divine Performing Arts presentation of classical Chinese dance, music and storytelling.
Lina Frick is a student and a dancer at the school. Her expert eye and enthusiasm lent itself to a detailed conversation about the Spectacular and its performers.
"This whole experience, this feels very rare to find in Sweden. It's not often Chinese dance gets here. So I will tell everyone I know to see this show if they can or else they will miss a lot. It's good to see. It will broaden your eyes and how you understand dance."
"It was a big inspiration for us [students]. We saw a lot of new things we haven't seen before, like how they move their feet, how they move their hands and just the face. It was very different, very unique.
"I've danced all my life. This was a great inspiration for me. I'd like to be a choreographer so it was fun to see how they did the combinations.
"When the men danced, the top part of the body moved with a lot of energy. They could stop the energy and just make the energy flow again. They had a very nice rhythm in their body.
"I was very touched by it because it had a very good story to tell and you could see how they worked with each other. They really listened to each other with their rhythms and their steps. There were a lot of dancers on the stage at the same time and they did a lot things that are very hard to do when you have so many people on the stage because you have to see each other even though you don't see each other. They did everything exactly at the same time.
"The drum part was amazing how they could do that at the same time, with the same rhythm—every movement, every step they took was exactly the same time. They all expressed the same spirit which is hard to have; they expressed one emotion because one emotion can be very different for each person, but they expressed it very clearly. I was very touched.
"And the costumes were also amazing. It was a sight to behold. It was movement and it was colours and it was shapes, very different shapes.
"And I liked how the feet were flexing sometimes and sometimes they were pointing, and you could really see the difference because they were very very clear, very clear. It was perfect. I cannot find anything wrong. It was amazing.
"You could really see how the hands were telling a story...they're really talking with their bodies. And even though you didn't see the feet as well because they wore long dresses, you saw the feet because they moved them with the smallest muscles they had in their feet and really followed though with every movement. That's very unique. Many dancers maybe forget their feet in all the big moves. And the use of feet in dance is something very important, like a communicator.
"You can't find Chinese dance at all in Sweden. I haven't found it yet. I would really like to learn it. So this was very unique and I hope they come back so more people get to see this. I'm hoping to see this one more time. I think if you see it again, you're going to see a lot of more things because there were so many impressions. I think you have to see it twice so you can see everything.
"The dance where they had bowls on their head, [the Mongolian Bowl Dance ] was very impressive, very impressive. I was shocked how they could do that. I didn't think it was real at first until they took their bowls off their head. That's really special. That's hard.
"Yes, [the dancers' technique] is advanced, absolutely advanced. The pirouettes, the jumps ... a hard work out."
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: www.DivinePerformingArts.org.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular. For our complete coverage please visit: http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/
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