Teacher Values Freedom After Watching Shen Yun

MELBOURNE—As Melbourne bustled with a plethora of events and festivals, another enthusiastic audience greeted the Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company at the Regent Theatre Saturday March 5, the company’s second-last show before moving on to Canberra.

The Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is one of three companies hailing from New York whose mission is to reclaim and renew the true culture of China, a culture inextricably linked with an ancient and divine heritage.

Primary School Teacher Cristine Dennis, who was part of the Saturday evening audience, loved the experience.

"I thought it was lovely. I love seeing the costumes and the dancing and the movements and the grace and the way it all flowed … it was really spectacular. I didn’t know much about Chinese dance but it was lovely to watch," she said.

Ms. Dennis thought Shen Yun was educational because it allowed Australians "to see another culture and very, very different from what we see here."

She commented on the values portrayed in the show and mentioned the dance which depicted a school teacher defending her beliefs against the tyranny of the communist regime. "I am glad we live in Australia,” she said.

'They are very talented'

Glenda Hanger who found out about the show after being handed a flyer, was not disappointed.

"Lovely. I really enjoyed it,” she said. “I haven’t seen any Chinese dance before so … beautiful, they are very talented."

She also thought that the costumes were "very colourful and beautiful."

All in all "it’s been really entertaining," she said.

Amanda Pope was also in the audience with her mother Mary. Ms Pope had bought tickets for her mother "as a nice thing" they could both do together.

Ms. Pope was impressed with the dancers describing them "as absolutely brilliant."

Her mother Mary had enjoyed everything she said commenting particularly on the closing scene. .

"The dancing was beautiful, the men were strong and the women they were glorious and I like the way they use the ribbons and the centre of the sleeves but the most dramatic was the final with that tsunami—we have had enough disasters lately so we can understand a little bit."

The final scene in Shen Yun is titled The Opening of Heaven's Gates and depicts the traditional Chinese thought that good begets good and evil begets evil.

Mary said she would “talk about it [Shen Yun] a lot “ saying: “I was captured by the spirit, good spirit and I understand there is a special message that we need to know, that they were telling us and there is a lot to evolve.”

“I found it very dramatic and very beautiful,” Mary concluded.

Reporting by Leigh Smith and Lucy Liu.