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“They are beautiful dancers and it made me feel good to watch it!” she said.
No other art form boasts such strong expressive qualities and diversity of technique as classical Chinese dance. Dancers must be versed in Chinese culture to achieve the bearing needed to bring ancient legends and figures to life.
Ms. Roselin said that as a former dancer, she greatly appreciated the performances and saw deeper meanings in them, “I could definitely appreciate it on that level, their skill level. Also how articulate they are as dancers and singers. How they bring their whole culture into it, and the perseverance it would take to continue that message of hope, and to do it through their art form, is very impressive.
She said she felt uplifted by the performance, Our Story. It described a loving teacher whose students are loyal to her in the face of cruel persecution.
Ms. Roselin said she saw hope in the performance, “The story did not end in darkness and turmoil, instead there is always this kind of resurrection of hope and spirit, and we’re going to persevere anyway,” she said. She laughed, and continued, “So the innocence in [the students], that you learn very quickly how to have that hope, what the right thing is.”
Jane Reilly felt seeing Shen Yun was an educational experience. “I did not know much about classical Chinese dance before. The whole history of it was interesting, the spirituality.”
Ms. Roselin said that the show offered much to learn about classical Chinese culture, “The dancing was colorful, beautiful, I loved the costumes, wonderful precision. The colors, the brilliance of the costumes, the attention to detail, and the simplicity of things and yet it has a huge scale to it even though it has these little fine movements. And the storytelling was very heartwarming.”
She was impressed by the animated backdrops that set the stage amid deep forests or lush tropical lakes, “I had never seen anything like that before … Very visual!”
Ms. Reilly agreed and said, “I thought the backdrops were wonderful and they were all different, the countryside, the different parts of China, and you got to see it on a big screen!”
Ms. Roselin was pleased by Shen Yun’s unique music, a blend of Eastern and Western instruments. She said, “It suited the dancing, but they also used their own instruments, their bodies. They also had the drums and the boxes.”
She was referring to the performance, My Beloved Yi Village. It is a traditional dance of southern China’s Yi ethnic group, in which girls tap a steady beat with tasseled wooden boxes.
Ms. Reilly said she would absolutely recommend Shen Yun to her friends, “It’s just like taking a tour of the history of China.”
Reporting by Peng Su and Jeanmarie Lunsford.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
