LONDON—Shen Yun Performing Arts delighted the audience at Eventim Apollo in London on Jan. 8. Paul and Gaynor Aspen expressed how moved they were during the performance. Mrs. Aspen, a former teacher, said, “I’ve been smiling and crying at the same time.”
The Aspens love the theater and booked early to see Shen Yun. “I just discovered it by accident because we are regular theatergoers, and I booked it quite a while ago. I just needed to see the colors. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it’s pretty amazing,” she said.
Mr. Aspen, a former director of IBM Europe and Cable & Wireless in the Caribbean, said: “It’s very beautiful to see. I know modern China and what the difficulty is, [then I see] this amazing, long, long history of beauty and ideas that, sadly, is now under wraps and suppressed. But this is just a beautiful show.”
Mrs. Aspen said: “It’s very uplifting. It’s just wonderful. I just wish I could share it all with so many more people.”
About the animated backdrop that interacts with the performers, Mrs. Aspen added: “I love the stage technology. I love the marrying of it. … The stage performance is very clever, and that could appeal to a younger generation as well.”
“Very often, technology somehow gets in the way of the authenticity. This actually doesn’t, it enhances it,” Mr. Aspen said.
Music played by Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which is a blend of Western and Eastern instruments, delighted Mr. Aspen. “I’m not an expert in music,” he said, “but it seems to be a lovely blend between the traditional and what is easy on our ears as well. It’s beautiful.
The spiritual message was important. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive China’s traditional, divinely inspired culture before communism.
“It’s uplifting. It helps you believe in maybe there is some greater being and divine intervention that probably the world needs at the moment,” Mrs. Aspen said.
“I agree with what my wife says. I think for so many years, most civilizations around the world believed in some sort of divinity and a continuation of life. And sadly, I think in the last maybe only 50 years or so, we’ve become very arrogant and think we know all the answers. We will learn the hard way, I fear.” Said Mr. Aspen.
Mrs. Aspen said she learned about traditional Chinese culture that was inspired by its spirituality: “People’s cultures are important, and people’s languages and their dance and their culture and their literature and their divinity, their religion, it all helps make people [better].”
About China’s history, she said, “I didn’t know about the classical Chinese cultural history, so this is very interesting, edifying, and encouraging.”
The couple said they would resoundingly recommend people to come see Shen Yun. “Oh, absolutely,” they said together.
Mr. Aspen said their friends should come to the performance. “Two friends we have who absolutely love to see this. One is a lady who has been a dancer and dance teacher, and she would absolutely love this,” he said.
“Without a doubt. It’s very moving. It’s beautifully presented. Beautifully presented,” said Mr. Aspen.
“We’ll be going back home to Kent. We’ll be talking to our village about this. We’ll tell them: ‘Go and see it,’” said Mrs. Aspen.
Reporting by Yvonne Marcotte.
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
