Australian Mayor and Mayoress: 'We could feel the electricity around us'

Cr Bruce Rowan(L) and Mayoress Charlie Walters(R), enjoying themselves after the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular in Melbourne, March 28. (The Epoch Times)

 

MELBOURNE, Australia—"It was amazing. Very moved. Culturally, it just blew me away," said Mayoress Charlie Walters after seeing the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular in Melbourne on its opening night in Australia.

"Oh, but just the visual spectacular—the colors, the movement, the coordination ... you could see the passion in the performers when they were doing it. In the drumming and the miming of the fighting and even just the gentle elemental stuff, the spiritual stuff. You could see it in their faces—it was really moving," said Mrs. Walters of the performers and their 20 acts, which incorporated both traditional Chinese and Western dance and song.

Her husband, Mayor of Melton Shire, was equally impressed by the show.

"The colorful costumes and the vibrant nature of the performance was wonderful. The syncronicity was wonderful" said the Mayor, Cr Bruce Rowan.

"The integration of the bilingual aspects was wonderful. Being able to hear the Chinese language, the Mandarin Chinese language, as well as the English, and integrate it so well together; that's what joins the two cultures together, I think," he said.

"There was no age group, there was no cultural derivative between it. It was just a show that everybody could go and see and enjoy."

The Mayor and Mayoress said they sensed the emotion from the audience as they were watching the show.

"We could feel the electricity around us" said Mrs. Walters of the audience reaction to a banner being unfurled revealing three Chinese characters that translate to truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance in the performance "The Power of Awareness."

"They broke into applause," she said of the audience.

"I had an elderly Chinese man sitting in front of me, and I could see he was shaking and clapping and crying. I found that moving ... the tears were running down his face, and he was holding his little old hands up and was clapping."

From that 80-or-so-year old Chinese man, to a 10-or-so-year-old Australian girl, Mrs. Walters felt the diversity of people this show attracted.

"There was a young girl behind me, she would have been under [age] 10 Australian, and I think she was with her relations asking what was happening–'what are they?' 'Aren't they funny shoes!' And wanting to understand, 'And why are they flying?' Because she was understanding a lot of what was going on too, so I think in terms of age group, it was really open," she said.

"I really felt that it was an experience that we all had. I come here often to see professional events, like to see Swan Lake or the Nutcracker—that was an incredible production—but I wasn't aware of the audience. But in this, you could feel the electricity in the audience, you could feel the movement—like when they got upset or really, really moved to tears or the laughter. You really felt part of a big group. It was really amazing."

Cr Rowan was pleased to see the performances "The Risen Lotus Flower" and "The Power of Awareness" depicting current China and the hope and efforts of it's people for democracy

"... it says something about Australia, how open we are, that we can speak about politics without the gag, without the persecution, and that's something that I'd love to see happen in China," said Cr Rowan.

"We all would. We all would," added Mrs Walters.

For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit:
www.DivinePerformingArts.org.