TAINAN, Taiwan--Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour presented an extravaganza of classical Chinese dance and traditions at Tainan Municipal Cultural Center on Feb. 22.

Axel, an artist who trained at the Waldorf School of Art in Germany, was in the audience. He had seen other live performances before, but the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) show was new to him. He said he enjoyed the spiritual aspect of the performance--"It's very uplifting."

"Chinese culture is very nice, very beautiful." He found the dance movements very interesting: "It's a different style."

Story-based dance, performed by gorgeously costumed dancers, as well as thunderous drumming sequences, are a trademark of DPA.

"The drums were good. I liked the drums. I also liked the Tibetan mountain [Dance of the Snow-Capped Mountain] and I liked the Spring [Welcoming Spring]."

He said he also enjoyed the last performance, Knowing the True Picture Offers Ultimate Hope, the part about the Buddha, "and this whole concept that life is more than making money and being self-indulged in our mundane life. But instead, try to look into our true selves, who we really are in the center of our hearts, so to speak. ... It's just encouraging, very nice."

Chinese classical dance has at its foundation China's divinely inspired culture of 5,000 years with its own complete set of training methods.

"When you dance, you do a lot of pantomime, you do a lot of things with your body ... and I thought that was really, really good. I liked the arm movement of the ladies, just fantastic, almost like water." Axel said.

"For me as an artist, I'm very critical, so I'm looking at the professionalism in the dance. It was very well-performed. When we speak about spiritual subjects, when you share your experience with the divine, I would say it would be very touching for me.

"I think what inspired me is the professionalism of the performers, which is the most important thing," he said. "No matter what genre you present, anything that is not well-presented, it's just not nice, and they [the musicians] presented this at a very high quality."

Axel said he understood the message that there was "more to life than making money, more than being self-consumed, eaten away by our desires of making a lot of money, having a nice car, a nice house, and a nice wife. If we look within, we can discover and enjoy more, to have a more joyful life.

"One performance, in particular, showed us how nice it is to be with good company, have good friends, a nice environment in which to live, where the bad forces--as it was presented here--don't catch up with us. ... That will always help us to look within," he said.