Shen Yun Performing Arts closed out its New York City tour with a bang—performing for 14 sold-out shows at the David H. Koch Theater at the prestigious Lincoln Center. The company rekindles 5,000 years of China’s rich heritage on stage, leaving theatergoers in awe.
Arbie Orenstein is a music professor at Queens College and scholar of composer Maurice Ravel. He said: “the beautiful orchestra played wonderfully, and the dancing is superb, and the visual effects are just striking. I would urge everyone who has the slightest interest in this type of culture, this is a must.”
Herbert Stupp, editor-in-chief and founder of Gipperten and former NYC commissioner member of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s cabinet, praised the performance calling it “positive and uplifting.”
“This is a tremendous program with just brilliant actors and dancers, and I know we’re not supposed to call them acrobats, but they have acrobatic talents stemming from Chinese dance. And the message was just so positive and uplifting, like a direct rebuttal to the horrors under communist China today.”
At the heart of Chinese culture is a deeply rooted belief in spirituality, something that was once almost lost due to the uprising of communism. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive China’s traditional values through the medium of classical Chinese dance and music.
“They put on a tremendous performance of music, singing, and dance that also stressed the importance of the Supreme Being, which obviously the communist Chinese try to suppress wherever they can,” added Mr. Stupp.
Lisa King, an actress, said: “besides her voice just moving me to tears, the lyrics, I like that. I like the idea that we’re all heavenly creatures and that we came down here to help one another and to purify the Earth and to purify each other, and that we all belong together. And that we’re in union with one another. So the lyrics were beautiful.”
Robert Desmond, founder and CEO of The Contrarian Trader, said: “what they did here was wonderful in bringing the spirituality, freedom pre-communism into what we want to see out of current day China. So I thought it was an outstanding job of how they did that. I was very happy to see that and I would come back again.”
Shen Yun tours with a live orchestra and is the first to incorporate both classical Eastern and Western instruments.
Phil Gelfer, a retired orchestra director and founder of Brookhaven Art and Music, said: “It was fabulous, the music was tremendous. I love the marriage of the traditional Chinese instruments with the full orchestra … I thought the orchestrations were very beautiful. Good interplay between both traditional and modern scoring techniques, which I think made a real big difference. Also very palatable for larger audiences.”
“The orchestra contains not only Western instruments, but Chinese instruments and it’s quite unique … The soloist, yes, yes, there were several singers accompanied by a fine pianist. Wonderful, wonderful voices, and really it’s something that everyone should really try and come and see,” said Mr. Orenstein.
Shen Yun will next perform at The Palace Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut from May 9 to 12.
From NTD News, New York
