Juanita Roy, a former ballerina who used to perform at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, returned as an audience member on New Year’s Day to watch Shen Yun for the second time.
“When watching all the dancers, I mean, I can just see the exquisite classical training. It’s so present in everything they do,” said Mrs. Roy. “The hand lines, the eye lines, everything is there. And it’s beautiful and exquisite. And you [Shen Yun] are my heroes and keep it up.”
She attended with her husband, Jose Roy, a life scientist, who saw Shen Yun for the first time.
“It’s a beautiful production. I was really inspired. I didn’t know what to expect,” said Mr. Roy. “I was really impressed with the beauty, the color, the choreography, the storyline that it’s telling, and the fact that it really touches the heart and soul, really, of every human being on the planet.”
Most of the artists are practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice from the Buddhist tradition, a group currently being persecuted under China’s communist regime. New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists who fled the persecution.
“We think that tradition is not relevant, but … people are suffering for just their religion and their values and the traditions that they hold sacred and dear to their heart,” said Mrs. Roy. “And we can all learn from these artists because they are, in spite of death, persecution, and all these things that come to them and their families, they have courage in their heart to stand for what they believe in, and we all need some of that.”
“I don’t care what your religion or what your faith is. It speaks to freedom and liberty and truth and beauty,” said Mr. Roy. “It talked about compassion, some of the words that they used—and they talked about the Creator a lot and the fact that the real evil, one of the evils, that is perpetrated upon our society is atheism, and evolution.”
Much of China’s traditional culture is divinely inspired—one of living in harmony with heaven and Earth. The couple feels it’s important to remember cultural traditions.
“If we forget all the things that are sacred to us, what are we living for?” said Mrs. Roy. “We’re just existing in a state of slavery, ultimately, to ourselves because without striving for divine nature and sacred music and art, what are we living for? We’re just living to suffer and to be a slave.”
“It’s a huge eye-opener because they speak the truth here. And it’s another viewpoint you have to be open-minded, you have to compare all the information that’s out there, you can’t listen to just any one source anymore,” said Mr. Roy. “A lot of people have a very narrow field of news, a very narrow field of influencers. And that tends to breed blindness. And it will breed catastrophe if you don’t compare all the data and think for yourself and use the power of observation.”
“It’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful. I feel the spirit behind the performance and it touches my heart,” said Mrs. Roy. “It makes me feel pangs of jealousy. I wish it was me. But yes, I still draw a lot from the beauty that they give us.”
Shen Yun performs at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House next.
NTD News, San Jose, California
