HOUSTON—People who love history can see beauty in Shen Yun’s presentation of true traditional Chinese culture. History teachers Michelle Balliet and Wallace Zimmerman were struck by the stunning qualities of the performance.
“It’s just stunningly beautiful. It always does make me get very emotional, teary-eyed, because you can feel the beauty. And it allows you to breathe away all the stress of the world and the chaos that’s going on. You could just relax and just be in awe of it. It always holds me in awe,” said Ms. Balliet.
Shen Yun is based in New York, and its mission is to revive the splendor of traditional Chinese civilization.
“It was beautiful. It was so much fun to watch. It was very exciting,” said Mr. Zimmerman.
Shen Yun’s dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance, one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world.
“It was amazing to watch all of the acrobatics in the traditional Chinese dance,” said Mr. Zimmerman.
Apart from classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun’s artists are also experts in Chinese ethnic and folk dance. China is filled with an abundance of ethnic minorities, such as the Mongolians and the Miao.
“I definitely love the ethnic dances. I even love the name of Shen Yun,” said Ms. Balliet.
According to Shen Yun’s website, the name “Shen Yun” means the beauty of divine beings dancing.
This was Mr. Zimmerman’s first time seeing Shen Yun. He shared that he was struck by the way Shen Yun depicted present-day China.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect. This is my first time. But to see the one dance where they were in the prison, that was very powerful,” he said.
The dance he was referring to is called “Unprecedented Crime.” This dance story is a depiction of Falun Gong practitioners who are being persecuted for their faith in communist China today.
“Communism takes your rights away, and it threatens your freedom. And with it brings death [and] persecution,” said Ms. Balliet.
Ms. Balliet shared that she was pleased to see such an honest portrayal of the persecution. She expressed her concern that many young people in America approve of communism.
“A lot of American youth think for some reason that communism is a good thing. I find that very alarming actually because if [they] only knew the history about how it takes away the rights of people; government control; government property, and if you were to try to protest, you’d be in trouble for it,” she expressed.
Many audience members have found hope in seeing Shen Yun, especially as a hope for the future generation.
“I was really surprised in a good way. This needs to be told—how communism takes away your tradition, takes away the history of your culture. The whole story-line about returning to the heavens; returning to the divine essence of one’s being—that journey is very beautiful,” said Ms. Balliet.
Reporting by Sonia Wu and Maria Han.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
From The Epoch Times
