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In the audience was Aroha Taunoa, originally from New Zealand, who designs and weaves traditional Maori costumes, and performs on cultural occasions. She now lives in Melbourne and attended the exhilarating show with granddaughters nine-year-old Shiann and Ave-Moana, aged five.
Mrs. Taunoa was in awe of the entire program, performed by the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, which includes exquisitely attired artists choreographed to match hi-tech animated backdrop scenes, and a full orchestral ensemble playing a fusion of Chinese and Western music.
“I thought it was spectacular, the vibrancy, and the colour. The whole thing was awesome,” Mrs. Taunoa said of the New York-based Shen Yun.
“I do Maori culture, ‘kapahaka,’ and I do a lot of craftwork, but those costumes were beautiful,” she added. “I thought the choreography and everything was brilliant. I was overwhelmed, actually.”
Mrs. Taunoa was particularly in awe of the lyrics of the songs sung in Chinese, with English subtitles, by sopranos Min Jiang and Feng Ming, baritone Qu Yue and tenor Guimin Guan.
“Some of the messages that came through, especially the last one—he really touched me,” she said of one of China’s most celebrated tenors of recent decades, Guimin Guan, who sang his own composition, Never Lose Your Way.
“I could listen to him again,” Mrs. Taunoa laughed. “I think his messages were really truthful to what’s going on now.”
Her granddaughter, Shiann thought the show was “cool” and the dancers had “a lot of flexibility.”
Shiann enjoys modern dance trends, such as break-dancing, but she also learns some ballet at school, she said.
She was impressed by the flexibility of the dancers. “It was cool, and I would like to learn some,” she said, adding that she would tell her friends the Shen Yun dancers were the “most flexible in the whole world.”
Classical Chinese dance has three main components: form, bearing, and techniques that include a series of very difficult moves—jumps, flips, twists, and spins that have been a part of classical Chinese dance for thousands of years.
Shiann’s grandmother said that if she could bring her family and friends to see Shen Yun she would.
Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization.
Reporting by Leigh Smith and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.
Shen Yun, which has thrilled audiences in Australia’s arts capital will now take up residence in the country’s capital with performances March 8 and 9 at the Canberra Centre. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
