Shen Yun Performing Arts is back in the San Francisco Bay Area for its new 2020 season tour. Here is what the audience has to say after their first stop in Berkeley.
“The arts were amazing,” said Nicole Solari, CEO of The Solari Group. “I smiled a lot and then I cried a little, and then I smiled a lots more, and then I had to leave and then I came back, and I stood in the back, and then I sat back down. It was really emotional, it was like an up and down.”
She enjoyed the performance with her husband, Neil Solari, COO of The Solari Group.
“It’s a trip back in time for a Westerner, I think. We don’t see this type of culture in a lot of our performances here in the United States,” he said.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture through dance and music.
“I liked the short vignettes, the short stories, as they were. Each one was complete; it had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And I really enjoyed that part of it,” said Gabriel Legendy, director of Strategy and Sales at Horauf America.
He watched the performance with his wife after hearing his parents praise it from New York.
“I think any of the ones with the really long sleeves, where the sleeves were just swirling. That was really overwhelming and incredible,” said Helen Marks, Legendy’s wife.
“I felt like I could see it three times and still not absorb all the things that were happening at one given time during the performance,” she said.
Much of traditional Chinese culture is divinely inspired, and it came across to those witnessing moments that involved a higher being.
“It’s spiritual. In term[s] of making people better people, better human beings, better citizens,” said Frank Hoang, a chemistry professor at Cosumnes River College.
“Some light, some darkness, and then that moment of salvation, followed by, I’d say glory,” said Legendy.
When asked what would they tell those who haven’t seen it, they said they’d recommend the performance.
“If I was telling my friends, I’d say go see it, prepared to be surprised,” said Solari.
“You have to come see it, hear it, feel it for yourself,” said Legendy.
