ESCONDIDO, Calif.—”It was just life changing, powerful, very much nourishment for the soul,” said Janet Cole, commenting on how the New York dance and music company Shen Yun Performing Arts had touched her.
Janet and Leah Cole, educators and owners of a private elementary school in Rancho Santa Fe, came to see the dance and music performance at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, on Sunday, Jan. 22.
Shen Yun lays five millennia of China’s ancient history before its audience with displays of classical Chinese dance and music depicting legends from antiquity to historical tales and modern-day events.
“I think it’s absolutely all encompassing, more than anything I’ve ever seen,” exclaimed Janet Cole, “because it had the emotion and the fear of the 5,000 years of struggle and triumph over and over.
“And it kept spiraling back on the same theme of this universal truth that everyone shares,” she concluded.
The dances in Shen Yun have themes that are rooted in the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, and the Tao—values such as benevolence, wisdom, honesty, and sincerity, added to which is the reverence accorded to the gods and the heavens, says the company’s website.
Being able to observe history through the medium of dance, said Leah Cole, was “one of those rare life experiences.”
“This was the most magical dance. It was beyond dance. It was spiritual,” she said.
“The precision and grace and clarity and crispness of the movements just made your heart sing. It was spectacular,” opined Leah Cole.
Shen Yun showed the audience how to practice compassion, she said. The spiritual messages in the story-based dances were about good and evil and about “how it will come back to us if we don’t do something about it,” she said. “It was a really healing experience.”
‘The whole production is perfection’
Long time friends Lori Keller, a teacher of education, and Ron Manzoni, a retired college president, had also found Shen Yun an incredible experience.
“It’s spectacular, inspiring—the talent of the dancers is beyond imagination, the music is perfection, the whole production is perfection and they’re so exact in their movements,” said Ms. Keller.
According to Shen Yun’s website, classical Chinese dance is one of the most all-encompassing dance systems in the world, with dancers having to undergo training in posture and movements as well as the highly demanding jumping and tumbling techniques.
Watching Shen Yun was a wonderful experience, said Mr. Manzoni.
“The colors, the young people, the excitement, the energy, plus the history of China—it’s wonderful.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts’ mission is to revive China’s 5,000 years of traditional culture, which was nearly decimated under 60 years of communist party rule.
Reporting by Flora Ge and Diane Cordemans.
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company be in Phoenix, Arizona at the ASU Gammage Jan. 27–29.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
