WATERBURY, Conn.—Shen Yun Performing Arts displayed the millenia-old, traditional culture of China at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut on Friday night.
Edwin Hayden, the owner and executive of a home care agency in New Haven, attended the performance, calling it “spectacular.”
“I love the colors, love the dancing, love the vocals,” he said, adding that he “was impressed by the cultural display [and] the ancient cultural display.”
Shen Yun seeks to revive China’s 5,000-year-old traditional culture through the arts and dancing, the company’s website says.
Mr. Hayden added that of “I think what I know of Chinese culture, I think very highly of it.”
“I know that it’s a civilization that had been, in the very very early days, thousands of years ago, had suffered many wars, had been victimized, but it is a peaceful people,” he said.
Mr. Hayden said that Shen Yun was able to convey the message of ancient Chinese culture to him. “I got a very good feeling from the show,” he said.
John Keane, who works in real estate, also attended the performance. “Detail from a screen coming on to the stage and making them real” impressed him, he said.
A prominent feature of Shen Yun’s shows is its use of digital backdrops that present colorful and detailed imagery, with which the dancers interact. The computer-generated backdrops depict mountaintops, ancient royal courts, forests, and other scenery.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I loved it,” Mr. Keane said, adding that the dancers “are so exquisite” and “they’re so in tune to everything. I enjoyed it very much.”
A retired nurse, Sheila Morisette, was also enthused with Shen Yun. “It was one of the most exciting performances I’ve ever seen,” she said.
“In the beginning number, when those drums were beating, my adrenaline started to rise and it never came down,” she added, referring to the opening piece An Era Begins, in which there is a fight with an evil red dragon.
“I was quite impressed. I was impressed by the skill, I was impressed by the beauty” of the performance, she said.
In several pieces, Shen Yun depicts the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice, in China, where practitioners have suffered hardship at the hands of the Chinese communist regime. “I was impressed by the cause,” Ms. Morisette said.
Reporting by Hannah Cai, Stephanie Lam, and Jack Phillips
Shen Yun has three companies touring the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will next perform at The Merriam Theater, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Jan. 6 to 8.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts
