FLORENCE—The cradle of the Renaissance welcomed a renaissance of traditional Chinese culture Dec. 27–30 with four performances by Shen Yun Performing Arts, giving audiences in even the city of beauty something that inspired marvel and wonder.
It was striking from the moment the curtains opened, said Pasquale Fianco, a military officer.
“The colors are beautiful, vivid; they immediately catch the eye,” he said after seeing a performance Dec. 30 at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. “The theater, the lighting, it all highlights everything beautifully.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission of showing the world China before communism.
“The whole show, overall, really resonated,” Mr. Fianco said. He experienced “feelings of peace, serenity, and tranquility.”
Mr. Fianco described the performance as fascinating and captivating and added he supported the artists’ mission to show everyone a China that the Chinese communist regime has sought to destroy, urging them to continue on against the regime’s prohibition of freedom.
“It’s a beautiful and important mission that they are pursuing,” Mr. Fianco said.
Paolo Bambagioni, a city councilor, was also among the audience members present on Dec. 30 for the last of Shen Yun’s four performances.
“The show is a show of dance very well done, expresses a form of thought and art that goes back to the old Chinese civilizations that have been passed down through the years and are now being revived with a very high technique, with beautiful colors, with beautiful settings, in many parts of the world,” Mr. Bambagioni said.
The five millennia of Chinese civilization Shen Yun takes as its mission to revive is now shared with people in more than 200 cities around the world each year.
Mr. Bambagioni said the production was one of impeccable quality and must have taken years of preparation for audience members who know nothing about ancient China to come and still fully participate.
He thought the artists sent an important message about the freedom of expression.
“Freedom of thought and religious expression is part of the fundamentals of every man in the world,” he said. That freedom comes hand in hand with disagreement, he added, which can be done in a civil or even elevated manner, as Shen Yun displayed.
“It is put forward as an expression of an interior world which they evidently carry forward, and which is nevertheless a message of peace, of hope, of confidence even in the future. Certainly these are not negative messages, they are messages of positivity and inner strength,” he said.
The Experience
Angela Nicoli, an opera singer, was blown away by the production’s high aesthetic and technical quality.
“It’s very strong—a very, very good emotional feeling. All the colors hit so much; it is an important visual impact,” Ms. Nicoli said.
Cristina Cattarin, a telecommunications executive, who had come to Florence after tickets sold out where she lived in Rome, said seeing Shen Yun brought her a sense of “freshness, brightness, lightness.”
“It refreshes the soul,” Ms. Cattarin said.
Letizia Lari, an administrative manager, had wanted to see a performance about the traditional Chinese culture and found Shen Yun more than delivered.
“It enriches you on an atomic level,” she said.
Ms. Lari said the performance left her with a sense of “harmony,”
“It’s a very fascinating and profound culture; the show is beautiful, especially because I think it represents the quintessence of harmony and perfection. The artists are very talented,” she said. “You are exceptional; continue in this direction.”
Virag Kertesz, a scientist who saw the Dec. 29 performance with her husband, said she has had a fascination with Chinese culture ever since she was a little girl.
Chinese culture before communism was one that the Chinese considered divinely inspired. For dynasty after dynasty, society centered on the concept of harmony between heaven, earth, and humankind—something Ms. Kertesz was familiar with.
“I think what I find very important about the spirituality of this show is that it shows you this unbreakable connection between earth and the heavens,” she said, adding that this was the connection between God and ordinary people.
“In our current world, we are so disconnected. We are disconnected from heaven, we are disconnected from each other,
we are disconnected from everything,” she said. “And for me, this show represents that we are all one.”
The long-awaited experience left her feeling very happy, comfortable, and eager to share it with friends.
“This is something very, very particular and very extraordinary,” she said. “I’m very grateful.”
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
