NEW YORK—David Feen, a trial attorney in the New York City area, was happy to have the opportunity to see Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater on Saturday.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen this and it was wonderful,” Mr. Feen said.
Shen Yun, a New York-based performing arts company committed to reviving China’s traditional culture, had been recommended to Mr. Feen by his father, who had seen Shen Yun perform last year and accompanied his son to this year’s performance.
Shen Yun has three performance companies and orchestras of comparable size, which tour the United States and the world.
Mr. Feen junior said he enjoyed all the dances, commenting on the skill of the performers. He was particularly taken with the performance, The Flower Fairies, an ethereal dance sequence depicting flower blossoms and their transformation into fluttering fairies, according to the program book.
“It opened up with all the dancers, they blow the fog, and then they come up slowly,” he said.
Mr. Feen junior said Shen Yun had given him a feeling of “calmness.”
“There’s a sense of peace to it, similar to meditation,” he said, “I could definitely see a connection between that particularly when some of the sopranos were singing … You could see that there was a connection to a spiritual basis. It was very nice.”
Shen Yun left him with the feeling that he wanted to come back and see the performance again and, by the close of the show, he was convinced he would follow in his father’s footsteps.
“I’d certainly come back and see it again,” he said, “It was a nice introduction to Chinese culture.”
Mr. Feen senior also enjoyed this year’s Shen Yun performance.
“I see this every year and I’ll see it next year, and I’ll take him with me!” he said.
Mr. Feen senior said Shen Yun appealed to him for many reasons: “the dancing, the choreography, the costumes and all of the aggressive physical energy that they put into it.”
It was also Shen Yun’s depiction of traditional Chinese culture that drew Mr. Feen back this year.
Mr. Feen had visited China in the 1970’s, he explained, and saw much of old China, the cultural aspects of which had appealed to him.
Shen Yun had put him in touch with those aspects of Chinese culture, he said noting “I like it [Chinese culture] very much.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Tara MacIsaac.
New York-based Shen Yun has three companies touring the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will next perform at Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, Jan. 19.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
