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Melbourne university student, Ivona Mijatovic, spelt it out when she saw the Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company at the matinee session at the Regent Theatre on Saturday, March 5.
“It was amazing! I loved the features, I loved how everything was just so colourful, and I loved the story. It was a lovely story and just the way it was conveyed. It was amazing,” she said.
Shen Yun, a New York-based company, has as its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture which, under the influences of Buddhism, Taosim and Confucianism, believed that art was a means of connecting to a higher universe.
Ms. Mijatovic, who is from Bosnia and Croatia, saw Shen Yun with her grandmother and her aunt. The production had inspired her, she said.
"It made me happy and optimistic.”
At the same time she was touched by scenes depicting practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual discipline, suffering under persecution in China today.
“The sad part, you could feel what they were feeling,” she said.
Ms. Mijatovic is studying science, drama and literature, but also loves dancing, having studied ballet for a year.
She appreciated the skills of the Shen Yun performers and the production, saying: “The costumes were really nice as well—they brought out the imagery. Just everything—it was really good.”
Shen Yun, she said, had made her think about life and the value of it.
“Life is very magical and you need to look at it more differently than it is,” she explained. “That’s what I got from it.”
Reporting by Leigh Smith and Shar Adams.
Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will perform in Melbourne at the Regent Theatre until Sunday, March 6, and Canberra on March 8 and 9 at the Canberra Theatre. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
