AUSTIN, Texas—”The curtains rise and it’s just the beauty and the calm,” said Ms. Ilene Kelfer of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin Saturday afternoon, April 13.
Ms. Kelfer attended the performance with Mr. Peter Lodde, excited after seeing New York-based Shen Yun a previous year.
“It makes me weep, it’s so beautiful,” Ms. Kelfer said. “It’s just visually beautiful.”
“I’m very touched by it,” she said of the traditional Chinese culture Shen Yun presented. “I think it’s very beautiful. It’s almost something that I think you would try to aspire towards.”
Traditional Chinese values like wisdom and propriety, respect for the heavens, benevolence, and justice, are presented on stage through music and dance.
“The beauty was just very poignant,” Ms. Kelfer said. “There was this equinimity that I find very appealing.”
“We’re very glad to be here,” Mr. Lodde said. Watching the performance, he said it felt like “the constant reminder to be pleased and joyous that you’re in this creation, and to express yourself and to show that. I think [Shen Yun does] a great job of that, it’s so beautiful.”
‘We Love It’
Also in the audience was Snow and Al Brunner of Brunner Marketing Systems, who felt drawn to Shen Yun before attending the performance.
“It’s lovely, I love the colors,” Mrs. Brunner said. “We love it, we love it.”
“It’s very fast moving, the dancers are excellent, the music was fabulous,” said Mr. Brunner, a marketing strategist who has developed businesses like Delphi Automotives and Great American Financial Services. “[Watching Shen Yun] was very pleasurable, very nice.”
Mrs. Brunner said she dabbled in art and had always had an appreciation for Chinese culture so Shen Yun was a perfect fit for her.
“Those color combinations in all of the costumes—the costumes were great,” Mrs. Brunner said, adding that she loved the music. “[It’s] pleasant plus mesmerizing.”
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
