SARASOTA, Fla.—While many people who attended the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) show at Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Dec. 22 came with no prior exposure to traditional Chinese culture, Cody “Flying Eagle” Templeton came to the Divine Performing Arts show already appreciating Asian culture.
Dr. Templeton, a minister and president of Shunyata-Kai International, an organization dedicated to creating internal peace to bring about world peace, was experienced in dance, martial arts, theater, and knew Asian culture and philosophy.
For him, seeing the DPA show was seeing the enactment of a dream he had more fully than he had been able to realize. He found great harmony between the principles expressed in the show and his own beliefs.
“Inspirational, powerful, very much within the teachings of where our organization is going, with individual peace leading to world peace,” was how Dr. Templeton described his impression of the show.
“I hope in the future more people get to see this show. It is a blending of two different cultures, which I have been trying to do for thirty-nine years. It is very inspirational.”
Dr. Templeton had wanted to use the various aspects of Asian culture in shows of his own.
“A lot of what I look for this show has, with the drums, the colors, the blending of the culture and the dance. I used to be the director of a theater company in New Mexico, and a show like this was what I was trying to produce there.”
When pressed to describe a favorite number, Dr. Templeton picked the Tibetan dances. “I enjoyed them the most because of my Tibetan roots and martial arts backgrounds. But I enjoyed all the dances, the culture. What I saw here was something I lacked in all my kung fu and tai chi training, the dance part. I always wanted to get more into it.
“I loved what they did with the flowers [”Welcoming Spring“] and the silks [”Flowing Sleeves"].
“I loved the references to the eight immortals [figures from traditional Chinese lore] and the Buddha. I loved the whole thing from beginning to end.”
For more information, please see DivinePerformingArts.org
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