Moving To The Spirit Of Peace An 'Emotional Experience'

29 November 2011

Press Release

Moving To The Spirit Of Peace An 'Emotional Experience'

Performers in the Summoning Hope Oceania Peace Festival at the Wellington Opera House combined art, dance and theatre into a emotional experience described by show director Anna Marbrook as "incredibly moving."

Hosted by lay Buddhist group, Soka Gakkai International of New Zealand, the festival attracted a full house of 1100 people on Sunday, 20 November with 250 performers, professionals and amateurs alike, from all over New Zealand volunteering their time for the show.

“I have never worked with such a diverse range of performers in terms of age, ethnicity and experience. Top artists rubbed shoulders with relative newcomers, said Marbrook

"Being backstage during the show was like a cross between a Fellini film and a meeting of the United Nations. It was an incredible collaboration of 250 performers unified joyfully through dance song and theatre. One person in the audience commented that the show was incredibly moving, they felt no division between the show and the audience. This was a great achievement. ”

The Oceania Peace Festival featured diverse performances ranging from the traditional Japanese Taiko drumming to urban bucket drumming, a mass choir led by Bert van Dijk to original song compositions by duo Sally Stockwell and Sarah Maccombee, hula to butoh, comedy sketches and acrobatics . The show was a celebration of life and the human spirit triumphing over adversity.

For New Zealand General Director, Jimi Wallace, the festival was a great way to bring people together to promote a culture of peace. “We need to come together in difficult times. Culture opens the heart and creates understanding between people. So, the festival is a way of promoting peace and understanding among people . This very much needed in difficult times.”

Soka Gakkai International of New Zealand is part of a world-wide grass roots Buddhist lay organisation which promotes peace, culture and education based on humanism.

ENDS

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