SAN FRANCISCO—Shen Yun Performing Arts put on its third of seven shows at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House on Jan. 4, as part of Shen Yun’s 2012 world tour.
Among the captivated audience members were Richard and Jill Sideman, aptly described as a Bay Area power-couple. Mrs. Sideman is an environmental consultant and past vice-president of CH2M Hill, a global engineering firm, while Mr. Sideman is a founder of Sideman & Bancroft, a US law firm specializing in federal tax issues. They are also quite active outside their professional work; Mrs. Sideman has played a variety of roles in the National Association for Women in Science, while Mr. Sideman is a past president of the American Jewish Committee.
While they are not regular opera-goers, the Sidemans decided to make the trip from Tiburon to see Shen Yun, and were thrilled.
Mrs. Sideman was struck by the “symmetry of movement” of the Shen Yun dancers. She particularly appreciated the way in which Shen Yun’s female dancers, using a technique particular to traditional Chinese dance, move smoothly and seemingly effortlessly with tiny steps.
“They don’t look like they’re moving at all,” she explained. “They look like they’re floating, which is I think how they meant to look.”
Shen Yun presents five millennia of traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance, orchestral music, and bel canto operatic singing, emphasizing traditional qualities such as wisdom, grace, and virtue—and also plenty of humor.
Mrs. Sideman commented on how she appreciated the humor in the dance piece How the Monkey King Came To Be. In this depiction, according to the program book, the Monkey King “startles a group of fairies picking peaches for a celestial banquet. They inform the Monkey King that he is not on the guest list, enraging him with the snub.”
Both husband and wife enjoyed the digital backdrops with state-of-the-art graphics technology. According to Shen Yun’s website, they are designed to extend the stage and transport the audience to a world where heaven and earth meld together.
“The integration of the background screen [with the] dancers in the foreground was unusual and kind of special. It showed a great deal of artistry,” said Mr. Sideman. “The illusion is wonderful!”
But it was not only ancient stories, humor, and engaging digital projection that captured the Sidemans’ imagination.
“I liked the Falun Dafa number a lot because it’s a more modern number,” said Mrs. Sideman, adding that she was aware that the meditation practice is persecuted in China.
A few of Shen Yun’s pieces are set in the present day, and depict the persecution of Falun Dafa—also known as Falun Gong—in China, where practitioners have been subjected to severe abuse by the Chinese state for the past 12 years.
Reporting by Jan Jekielek and Cassie Ryan.
Shen Yun will be in San Francisco until Jan. 8, 2012. New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
