CHICAGO—Coming from Hungary, a country once under Soviet control, dance studio owner Viva Baroti found Friday night’s performance by Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company inspiring.
“That’s the word—it’s inspirational,” said Ms. Baroti in summing up her response to the performance.
Shen Yun aims to restore 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture, which had been all but destroyed under decades of communist rule. Two of the 15 short dances in the program depict stories of persecution in China today: persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that emphasizes a life devoted to truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
“I believe it was very specific to some of the very unfortunate events in China,” said Ms. Baroti, who performed ballet for 28 years, but currently teaches Latin dance primarily.
Ms. Baroti was already familiar with classical Chinese dance, at the very core of Shen Yun’s performance.
“I actually have been exposed to it in my own country because I have a number of Chinese friends who are from China. I learned a little bit of Chinese,” she said.
“It’s very interesting,” she said.
“I loved the only one that was a combination male and female soloists,” she said of a dance called The Emperor’s Journey to the Moon. She considered it unique to classical Chinese dance, which usually has either groups of male or female dances.
“It was phenomenal, the coordination. It was beautiful,” she said.
Reporting by Stacey Tang and Sharon Kilarski
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
