TAMPERE, Finland—Since it began its tour earlier this year, a number of clothing designers have said that the Chinese Spectacular costumes have inspired them in their work.
Kajsa Hermenma is one such aspiring designer in her final year of schooling, who also spends a lot of her free time dancing. She designs and makes her own dance costumes, but she said that she had not seen anything like the Spectacular costumes before. She noticed that because of the costumes' designs, the dancers are able to "use their clothes to express their feelings."
Ms. Hermenma noticed that when the dancing was "soft", the colour used in the costumes was likewise, while when the dancing was more "hard", the costumes used were darker. She said she liked the use of both traditional Chinese and contemporary motifs in the clothing. She was also impressed with how some dancers could change their elaborate costumes in the middle of an act.
The use of silk in the costumes, in particular, spoke to her.
"I liked the silk. Silk is something that I had not seen [used this way] before …those long sleeves and fans, I liked it when they used silk as a border."
According to Ms. Hermenma, silk "catches movement very easily. Because if it's close [to the body], if you do some little thing, the silk catches that. So it's so shiny and light, it follows your movements easily."
The use of silk in the Chinese Spectacular now really gotten Ms. Hermenma thinking.
"I probably will use more silk. I'm graduating now, so I have to choose my dress [styles], and make them, so I think I am going to use silk, and the pink colour – and those beads."
She also took a moment to compare traditional Chinese dance with the ballet that she is familiar with:
"In the Chinese dance, they are making little steps all of the time – we don't do that in ballet," she said. She also noticed that the Chinese traditional dancers "use more smiling, and their hands, they express their feelings like movements, [differently from how] we express our feelings."
She said there seemed to be fewer constraints of form in traditional Chinese dance.
Of the show overall, Ms. Hermenma was dazzled by the synchronization of the dancers, which she described as 'beautiful.' She said she found the dances "impressive" and "very professional."
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Chinese Spectacular shows. For more information, please see www.bestchineseshows.com .
For our complete coverage please visit http.en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/.
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