AUSTIN, Texas—Having watched Shen Yun Performing Arts last year, Cheryl Bonfils-Rasmussen wanted to make sure she didn’t miss the chance to see it again this year.
“We love it, we saw it last year, but we had to come back this year,” Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen said after watching the performance at Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts on Friday evening, April 12.
This year, Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen, who owns a biomedical company, came with a crowd of friends as a celebration of one of the birthdays of one of their daughters.
Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen had high praise for the synchronization of the dancers, and how the dances were coordinated.
She noted that her 7-year-old daughter also was very engaged with the performance. Based in New York, Shen Yun has a mission to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture, and take audiences on a journey through China’s history, from ancient times to modern times.
“My daughter loves it,” Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen said. Referring to the dance pieces depicting the persecution of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong in contemporary China under the communist regime, she said her daughter was very touched.
“She got very upset when they were persecuting somebody … she’s like, oh, that’s not good, we should be able to say what we want, do what we want,” Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen said.
“She [was the] first person that commented on it, she’s only 7 years. She knows something is not right, so for her to say it to me, you can tell the message is getting across.”
Ms. Bonfils-Rasmussen also said she found the hand-made costumes to be great, and praised the performances by Shen Yun’s award-winning solo vocalists, adding that the lyrics of their songs were very good.
Shen Yun ‘Gets Into Your Spirit’
For Dr. Benson Brice, a physician, the Shen Yun performance was more than just an art performance.
“It seems like it gets into your spirit, into your soul,” Dr. Brice said.
“You can feel all this culture, all these 5,000 years of culture and traditions. You can feel it; you’re looking at a piece of artist—dancing, singing, expressing themselves, all the traditions. Very beautiful, excellent!”
Dr. Brice added that the performance is “so meaningful,” and expresses “all this spirit, all the soul” that has penetrated the Chinese culture.
Speaking more broadly, Shen Yun, Dr. Brice said, is expressing the “meaningful things” that the world has lost.
“They are expressing those meanings through this show,” Dr. Brice said.
Reporting by Lily Setoh and Sarah Guo
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
