AUSTIN—Music theatre performer Les Young and musical director Chester Eitze watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Long Theater for the Performing Arts on Dec. 29. The two were highly impressed by Shen Yun’s production and the performers’ superb techniques.
“The main thing is, it’s so visually stunning,” said Mr. Eitze, who had seen Shen Yun before. “You have the projections, you have the technical aspects, but then what they do is they emphasize the body and how the human body moves. I think that’s what divine is. Divine movement, divine spiritual body. It’s just amazing, stunning.”
“[Shen Yun] took me away from the daily problems that we’re thinking about and into the artistic, the divinity,” Mr. Young said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006, when a group of leading Chinese artists made it their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture and show the world what China was like before communism. Now with eight equally-sized companies touring the world simultaneously, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company.
Unfortunately, Shen Yun cannot be seen in China today. Shen Yun’s program includes story-based dances, some of which are based in modern-day China and depict the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of followers of Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
“The saddest thing … [is that] these performers cannot do this in China now, and that’s very painful,” Mr. Eitze said. “The first time I saw it, I cried. I started getting tears because I knew it was coming. I knew there were several more scenes enacted like that … I could just feel my tears starting to come.”
However, both Mr. Eitze and Mr. Young felt that despite the adversity depicted in the performance, there was also an overarching message of hope for the future.
“It’s hope to go forward,” Mr. Eitze said.
“I liked the ending because there’s hope,” Mr. Young said. “Things are not the best right [now,] no, [but] things will get better.”
Reporting by Sherry Dong and Wandi Zhu.
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
