From a wondrous tapestry of heavenly realms, to ancient legends, to modern heroic tales, Shen Yun presents a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese culture. The music and dance left Boston audiences in awe.
“It’s the utmost level. I was thoroughly impressed. The execution and the choreography were absolutely amazing. So impressive,” said former ballet dancer Traci Dastou.
“It’s inspiring from a cultural as well as an art form. It’s just marvelous,” said April Ranck Guzman, the founder of Arlington Internation Film Festival.
“I thought it was the best I’ve ever seen,” said Robert Maginn. “I’ve been to a hundred Broadway shows, to London West End Theatre and Tokyo. I’ve been to lots of performances in Tokyo and here in Boston, and this one was the best.”
Maginn is the CEO of Jenzabar, a software company, and the former Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. From its production to the inner values portrayed, Maginn couldn’t stop praising about every aspect of the performance.
“I would say the message, the music, the choreography, the dance, the costumes, and set design, it was so good,” he added. “And then the fact that they mix the western music instruments, with the Chinese music instruments. The ancient things, they brought ancient values back into modern times. It had a humor in it, it was funny. I mean, I couldn’t recommend it more.”
“We loved the performance it’s a piece of history that is… it’s so wonderful to be able to see this, the traditions,” said Mrs. Guzman. “It’s a wonderful piece of history how we can learn from the traditional China,” added Mr. Guzman.
According to its website, Shen Yun means “the beauty of divine beings dancing.” In ancient China, music and dance were originally used to give thanks to and praise the divine. Maginn felt that coming through the performance. “Just like they said, you could see in their physical kind of movements and things that there was something divine coming out, and it’s like what made it so special,” he said.
Chinese culture is known to be divinely inspired. Once the Communist Party seized power, they began to systematically destroy ancient Chinese culture. This destruction of culture still continues today. After seeing Shen Yun, audiences felt inspired by its message and hope the situation in China will improve soon.
“So I think that the main thing for me was that there was a message. The fact that we’re all divine beings, God is in all of us, and that we have a right to worship God,” added Maginn. “And the fact that the Chinese communist government is opposing, that is [a] terrible thing. And I’m glad to see that the U.S. Congress is trying to fight for the human rights and the religious freedom of the Chinese people.”
“I thought that it was very meaningful. We’ve shown films that are about this situation in China and we very much appreciated the dance, very much,” added Mrs. Guzman.
Finally, Maginn expressed his respect and appreciation to Mr. D.F., the Artistic Director of Shen Yun.
“I just want to say to D.F. and his crew, that they’ve done amazing things,” Maginn added. “Since 2006 to come this far, I hope them, I wish them all the blessings of heaven and that they will continue to grow and thrive in all that they do.”
NTD News, Boston, Massachusetts
