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Italian Director: The Divine Performing Arts a Rare Treasure
By Wang Qinghan
(Clearwisdom.net) After Sweden, Finland, and Romania, the Divine
Performing Arts continued to blaze a trail of glory in the Nordic region. Their
next stop was Milan, one of the main fashion centers in the world and the second
largest city in Italy. They wowed the audience with a spectacular display of
dazzling artistry and heartrending storytelling inspired by classical Chinese
culture. Maurizio Nichetti is a popular actor, screenwriter, director, and producer,
sometimes known as the "Italian Woody Allen.. He served as a jury member at
the 1998 Berlin International Film Festival and the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
and was Artistic Director at the Trento Film Festival. He bought a ticket to the
Spectacular after seeing a TV ad. He said the Divine Performing Arts had
achieved success just by staging the show in Milan. After watching the
performance, he said, "This cannot be described on an ordinary scale. ...
This is a rare treasure and must not be compared with other shows. What's most
surprising is that it brings together [a wonderful mixture of] culture and
tradition, all within one brilliant show." Nichetti also works at mime theaters because he enjoys watching a group of
people making simple movements. He said, "My favorite part of the Spectacular
was the dancing. I loved the typical rapid movements radiating explosive power
that so seamlessly transitioned into slow movements that reflected such delicate
and fluid grace, and yet it always struck the right chord both technically and
emotionally. No genre of dance in Europe can measure up to this." According to Raffaela Pet, a dancer and teacher, it was, "The first time
I've seen such an excellent performance in Italy. The performers are incredibly
expressive, and the dances and the stage scenery were breathtakingly gorgeous
with unique colors. It was exquisite and made my heart rejoice." She also
noted the lack of education in classical Chinese dance in Milan, "I hope
we'll have schools that teach classical Chinese dance here in the future so we
can learn it." Mr. Bruno Siti, a former stockpile manager with ENI, Italy's oil and gas
corporation, and his wife attended the opening show in Milan on April 15. He
said the performance reminded him of historic tales about Genghis Khan,
"I'm very interested in Chinese culture and I loved this show. The first
program, 'Descent of Celestial Kings,' was stunning; I could not have possibly
anticipated that at all. I could understand the meaning behind the dance, and
the hosts of course helped enhance our comprehension. I know about contemporary
China in the past five decades, and it's not a very long time compared to
China's 5,000-year-old history. Fifty years from now, many things may be
different." ENI is an Italian multinational oil and gas company with a presence in 70 countries. It is currently Italy's largest
industrial company. Gabriele Marzorati, an engineer, said the Spectacular has an
"amazing, vibrant spirit" and corrected a lot of notions he previously
held about China. "Traditional Chinese culture was destroyed by the
Communist Party and the Red Guards, and Europe has a false conception of China.
This show took me to the China before all those disasters took place, so I
praise the Divine Performing Arts from the bottom of my heart." Claudia, an IT manager, came to the Spectacular after receiving a
flyer about the show. She was deeply moved by the performance, "'The
Mongolian Bowl Dance,' the drums, and the songs all touched me profoundly. The
lyrics were just marvelous." She had an especially powerful, almost visceral response to the words
"Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." She said, "We all need to think
about 'Truth, Compassion, Tolerance' on a daily basis. Although they are simple,
they entail magnificent messages for the entire world, not just one culture or
one individual."
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