NEW YORK—Shen Yun Performing Arts concluded on Sunday afternoon a five performance run at Lincoln Center, all to a sold out audience, a standing ovation and three curtain calls.
“The use of color is phenomenal,” said Nancy Sabatos, an executive consultant for Johnson & Johnson. “And the combination of technology, that was spectacular. I am actually overwhelmed—it is so wonderful.”
New York-based Shen Yun was established in 2006, says its website, and has three equally large dance companies and orchestras touring the world. It has one mission: to revive 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture after it was nearly decimated by communist rule in China.
Ms. Sabatos, who has been to Beijing multiple times, was affected by several dances that portray the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in modern China.
“I was actually crying,” she said,” because I have talked to people who have been through that. It was just amazing.”
“Shen Yun uses performing arts to present stories that bring to life the inner essence of China’s divinely inspired culture. This includes ancient legends, characters and tales from history, and representative events from the modern world, including Falun Gong cultivation stories,” says Shen Yun’s website.
“Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is guided by the principles of ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.’ It has helped over a hundred million Chinese people understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture—Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist schools of thought—yet, the Chinese Communist Party, whose regime and ideology are in stark contrast with the traditional culture of China, has targeted Falun Gong for persecution” says the Shen Yun website.
“That just brought every emotion I ever had about the past,” said Ms. Sabatos. “It exploded in my head as I am watching this beautiful dance.”
Classical Chinese dance—considered both one of the most comprehensive dance forms in the world and one of the most difficult to master—is at the heart of Shen Yun performances, says its website. The performances are enhanced by a digital backdrop, handcrafted costumes, and an orchestra that merges Western classical instruments and ancient Chinese instruments, such as the 4,000 year old erhu, or two-stringed Chinese violin.
Jenny Bux, who accompanied Ms. Sabatos and does some ballroom dancing, particularly loved the costumes and the movement they evoked.
“The fact that the costumes have so much movement with them—it just adds so much to the dance,” she said. “It is just a part of the dancer. It just flows.”
Ms. Bux loved the dance Qing Imperial Guards, where “in the crisp air of a snow-dusted courtyard, imperial guards wield fans as weapons, embodying a spirit of strength, dignity, and refinement,” says Shen Yun’s program book. The imperial guards are from China’s final dynasty, the Qing, which was founded by a north ethnic group, the Manchurians.
“The dancing is incredible,” said Ms. Bux, adding that she was impressed by the balanced choreography.
Both women agreed that the atmosphere of the performance was both “phenomenal,” and “pure.”
Reporting by Tang Chao and Zack Stieber.
Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will next perform at Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, Jan. 19.
They will return to New York’s Lincoln Center Apr. 18-22.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
