ATLANTA—People lined up to buy tickets and thronged the lobby for the first matinee of the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour offered to Atlanta on Saturday, Dec. 20.
Many children were in the audience. Little girls in red Christmas dresses were a charming sight. A blond boy about six years old posed for a picture proudly holding out his arms. He was wearing a black cotton jacket embroidered with gold dragons.
Spontaneous applause erupted again and again during the dances, and the show received a standing ovation, as it did on opening night.
“Oh, it was wonderful,' said Mr. Torch of Atlanta. ”It’s overwhelming, just so beautiful, so elegant, so graceful.”
He said his wife had heard about the show in a publication she reads, and had persuaded him to come. The couple brought friends, including Mr. Malik, who said he found it beautiful. Mr. Torch is a mortgage broker who founded and directs a non-profit educational association meant to help veterans get good mortgages and fully use their veterans’ mortgage benefits.
Essentially It Was Feelings
Mr. Ono held his four-year-old daughter in his arms. He said, “It’s wonderful. My family is here. It’s an absolutely beautiful venue.”
He said one of the dance stories, in which a wife and child suffer a loss, was emotional for him.
His wife is Chinese, and he is Japanese, but they live in Dunwoody, a prosperous Atlanta suburb. They make sure to keep their child in touch with the rich histories of both her cultures.
Mrs. Ono chose the show and led many other parents from her child’s theme school for high achievers to get tickets. “We got a group discount,” she said. “A lot of moms got together.’
Mr. Ono works at an internationally-known university—not the one on his sweatshirt, he said. When his picture was taken, he joked that his friends would think he had defected to Georgia Tech.
Their friend, Mrs. Alexandro, is from Montreal. She said the whole globe is so interconnected. Human values and beliefs are essentially the same, she said, and talked of innate human values.
“The beautiful costumes ... They mentioned silk as being a gift from the deities,” Mrs. Alexandro said. “Essentially it was feelings.”
For more information please visit DivinePerformingArts.org
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