AUSTIN, Texas—Dorothy Tichavsky recently retired from the Austin Federal Credit Union, came back from Rome on a crutch, and saw an ad for Shen Yun Performing Arts on the television.
“I said I’m going there and come to this, and I told my friends,” Ms. Tichavsky said at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas, April 13.
Ms. Tichavsky was touched by New York-based Shen Yun’s performance, which includes traditional Chinese dance and solo vocalists singing original Chinese songs in the bel canto style with English lyrics projected on the backdrop.
“[The lyrics were] wonderful, wonderful,” Ms. Tichavsky said. “You wouldn’t even have to have the English, but it was wonderful, the singing … beautiful, but it was so meaningful, so meaningful.”
“The music was incredible,” she said, noting how much she loved Shen Yun Orchestra as well. The unique blend of Chinese instruments and a Western orchestra accompany all of Shen Yun’s dances.
“The colors, the way they blended in with the performance was beautiful, absolutely beautiful,” she said.
“The costumes just flow,” she said. Costumes of every color brighten up the stage when the performers dance in custom-made costumes designed from traditional Chinese clothing. She added that she could see the transition from the different eras and regions of China, and the traditional culture throughout.
“The way it was presented was beautiful,” Ms. Tichavsky said of the spirituality in the culture. “It’s all about nature.”
The feeling of something bigger was shared by many of the audience members.
Tiffany Gatchel, a neuroscience student, saw Shen Yun and said “It was phenomenal.”
“I felt like, the world is so big and a performance like this really makes it feel like a little bit smaller,” Ms. Gatchel said. “There’s so much uniqueness to the cultural offerings, and yet you just feel like we’re all one big people, and it gets in touch with the humanity, and it was just so beautiful.”
“There was a bowl dance that really makes you hold your breath,” she said, listing a few of her favorites. Female dancers in the Mongolian Bowl Dance balanced bowls on top of their heads seemingly effortlessly while performing the dance with its signature shoulder shake. “The Shaolin Monks [When Shaolin Monks Protected the Emperor] were very impressive, and [An Early Spring] dance was just a world of colors.”
Reporting by NTD Television, Lily Setoh, and Catherine Yang
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
