Divine Performing Arts: Chinese New Year Spectacular 2009-La

I can only speak for the performance that I witnessed, but:

This is not a New Year show. The only mention of New Year during this multitude of short skits and poor singing, is when the Masters of Ceremonies, whom you will quickly tire of, try to get some audience participation going by “teaching you Chinese”. It really also isn’t spectacular, there are several very talented performers, the orchestration is good, and the costumes are alright. The set design is non-existent, consisting of some projectors showing cheesy animation. There is no continuity between the many skits, other then that much of the choreography is the same from one to the next. What this show really is though, and this is mentioned during the show, but really no where else, is a load of propaganda for Falun Dafa. Also not mentioned until well into the 2nd half. (If you hadn’t guessed before then) is that it is a New York based company.

In the end you feel as if you have just spent 2 hours watching a High School ethnic presentation from a religious school. And really; that’s exactly what you just paid top dollar to see.

Trying to search for more information, as some of the other responses have stated, is futile. All the “News” results are from Epoch Times (A Major Sponsor), the first several pages of search results are all registered by the Divine Performing Arts. And any critical responses or reviews are quickly drowned out by the same sort of “Oh I loved it, and was moved to tears” posts that you find here. One might think they are trying to tailor their image. Who’s “Evil Party Lies” are we not supposed to be believing?

As to the point being “In China we would be imprisoned for doing this” that is a hard point to make when most of the performers have never been to China. Of the ones that are from China, they were trained in the Arts in China. The MC’s make it sound like NONE of these arts would be seen in China, which is completely unfair. As most of the dances, except maybe the Pro-Falun Dafa, would be allowed. The stories certainly are. They try to taint the entire show as being a show of what arts have been Lost in China since the cultural revolution. But many of these are still taught and performed there.

I am not fond of China’s human rights record, and can sympathize to some extent. But this religious organization would not be the first group I would intervene for. As there are many more powerful and useful groups suppressed in China, like Journalists. Which is a group of people that the DPA seem to like to repress as well.

I can’t say I would have thought as the Falun Dafa/Gong practioners as any more crazy then the individuals that practice Scientology. But this show isn’t billed as Some singing and dancing about Falun Gong’s Chinese Repression. It is billed as a Spectacular show of China’s Culture themed to the New Year. And as such, it fails completely.

If that is the sort of show that you think sounds just like what you would like to see, then I guess this is for you. If you really just wanted to see what Chinese New Year is like, well, maybe go to a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. For the price of the tickets, you could take all your family and friends, and just the process of eating a meal with friends and family would be more traditional, and bound to be more Spectacular then this production.