Shen Yun wrapped up 7 performances in Paris on Feb. 19 at the Palais des Congrès.
Each year, Shen Yun brings a whole new production to the stage aiming to revive China’s 5,000 years of culture, which is said to be divinely inspired.
“I feel like I am in a dream, and I am amazed … even more by the Chinese culture,” said Sonia Ben El Haj, a lawyer and professor at Sciences Po University.
Philippe Drobinski is a research director at the CNRS, specialized in meteorology and climatology. On Feb. 18, he came to experience Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Palais des Congrès.
“It’s poetry!” he said enthusiastically. “The performances are just incredible. The dancers are outstanding and the story is just incredible!”
“The artistic level is just—it’s the top of what’s really being done. The jumps, it combines both the flexibility of the movements and then with that, athletic performances that are just incredible,” he added.
“It is grandiose. It’s full of beauty. The dancers are very, very graceful,” said Gérard Motto, the president of the French Union of Specialists in Orthodontics. “You can see the professionalism behind it.”
“We see the Chinese tradition, we see the professionalism of the dancers. It’s magnificent, it’s magnificent.”
“This performance was absolutely wonderful. It is a fairy tale of colors,” said Benoît Clocheret, the president of the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Association. “It is also a dive into the history of China for millennium, and we are transported from the beginning to the end.”
“The exceptional caliber,” he added. “We feel the great preparation of the artists, a work of all the moments, a work of precision, and at the same time, a lot of emotions which emerge from their movements and their harmony.”
The audience said Shen Yun brings universal values and leaves them hopeful.
“I think it sends important messages because we are in a world of immediacy, in a world of material things, in a world where we are very closely connected. And here, it sends a message of peace, of calm, of looking towards others, of serenity,” said Clocheret.
“A lot of joy, it’s joyful,” said Ben El Haj. “There’s a lot of openness towards beauty, towards nature.” She described Shen Yun as “magical,” and that it was more than just a performance. “I felt a sense of comfort in the light of these strong performances.”
“I especially felt this message of peace, of openness towards others, and especially this is a call to peace and to give respect to universal values,” she added.
“A lot of serenity, a lot of hope,” said Motto. “That is what the world today should be, as beautiful as the show and as peaceful and as hopeful.”
“A very strong feeling, a feeling that faith corresponds to a hope, that it gives hope and that we need it,” said Jacques Frenehard, the chairman of the supervisory board of F&M Group.
He mentioned that this performance is well needed, “especially because of what is happening at the moment and not far from us.”
Shen Yun performed in five cities in France throughout February and will be back in Montpellier this April.
NTD News, Paris, France