PHOENIX—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at the ASU Gammage in Phoenix on Friday evening, performing to an enthusiastic sold out audience.
“Everything was impressive,” said Jeannie Flynn, owner of two companies and president of a third. “There wasn’t one part that I looked at I didn’t say ‘wow.’ There was so many talents [Shen Yun] had on stage tonight—it was just amazing.”
New York-based Shen Yun was established in 2006, says its website, with one mission: use performing arts to revive 5,000 years of divinely-inspired Chinese culture after more than 60 years of communist rule in China nearly decimated it. Spiritual principles such as benevolence, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens, are the deeper core of this ancient culture.
“It was very spiritual,” said Ms. Flynn. “We find more spirituality and magic sometimes in the East than we do in the West.”
Classical Chinese dance, an ancient art form that “is rich with expressive power,” along with folk and ethnic dance, are the heart of a Shen Yun performance, according to its website, which adds “Classical Chinese dance is a culture left to us by the ancients who came before us, its beauty should be riches shared by all of humanity.”
These dance forms are enhanced by handcrafted costumes and a live orchestra that melds a Western classical instruments with distinct Chinese instruments, such as the 4,000 year-old erhu, a two-stringed instrument.
The performance took Ms. Flynn through Chinese history, and “expressed so many different things,” she said. “[The] music and the dance, it just made it so musical and magical and something that we have never experienced here before.”
Ms. Flynn was accompanied by her 11 year-old daughter Stormy, who mentioned that she enjoyed the vocalists, yet another aspect of Shen Yun.
Engineering Manager: Shen Yun ‘Very Impressive’
Gary Hoffman, an engineering manager for Intel, also attended Friday evening’s performance.
“I liked it!” He enthused. “It was very good, very good, very impressive.”
The choreography and the dancers’ synchronicity impressed Mr. Hoffman, who particularly enjoyed the dance Snowflakes Welcoming Spring, a northeastern folk dance in which “Dancers take small, quick steps through snowy fields as they skillfully spin and twirl sequined handkerchiefs,” according to Shen Yun’s program book. “In the end, the snow finally melts to reveal winter’s parting gift: the birth of spring.”
A pianist accompanies Shen Yun’s award-winning vocalists. “I especially like the pianist, the lady who would come out and play when both the tenors were there,” said Mr. Hoffman. “She was exceptional.”
With his technical expertise, Mr. Hoffman marveled at the digital backdrops that provide views of China’s diverse natural landscape, such as Himalayan Mountains or Mongolian plains, while sometimes turning interactive, with figures on the screen suddenly appearing on stage.
“I was very impressed with that—the timing of it—because it looked like they were in the right place at the right time, and they went right up into the sky.”
Reporting by Flora Ge, Youzhi Ma, and Zachary Stieber.
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will perform in Phoenix, at the ASU Gammage, through Jan. 29.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
