Dancer and Actor Lochlan Denholm: Shen Yun Was ‘An Amazing Ride’

MELBOURNE—Melbourne, the fashion, food and culture capital of Australia welcomed the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts show on a cool first Autumn night but with much warmth and opulence in the glorious Regent Theatre.

Among the audience was Lochlan Denholm, young star in the Australian version of the popular musical Billy Elliot.

The young dancer and actor found Shen Yun “pretty amazing” and having performed a leading male role, particularly noted the strength of the Shen Yun dance performances.

“I really liked the male performances, not to say that I didn’t like the female performances,” he said, adding, “I was drawn to the male performances, especially the warrior performances.”

“I also enjoyed the flower, the plum blossom performance and the really … military like elements,” he said.

Billy Elliot was the title character in a film about a boy from a northern English mining town, who battles his background, family and his own demons, to become a leading ballet dancer.

The film was made into a musical with songs by Elton John.

In Australia, a number of young boys were chosen to star in the successful stage production and Lochlan was one of them

Speaking from his experience as a dancer, Lochlan noted the ability of the dancers in Shen Yun to move in seamless unison an the difficulty of achieving that in such large numbers.

“I was really impressed by the choreography and especially how many people were on the stage at once in some of those scenes.

“I mean, getting three people to do that stuff is hard,” he said

The special effects and the digital screens had also been impressive.

“I really liked the special effects, they really added and emphasized certain elements.

“For instance, the lightning strikes when the policeman were coming … really good, fascinating. It was really good, I really enjoyed it.”

Although Lochlan was not familiar with Chinese culture or history, he found the experience enriching and unexpected.

“I am really new to it all, I really don’t have much Chinese background, I just haven’t done much Chinese history but I found it all really interesting and specially remembering those monks scenes, that was really interesting.”

In the Little Mischievous Monks, the young monks are caught surrendering to their more playful side amidst their discipline of their spiritual practice.

All in all, Lochlan said that Shen Yun had been “an amazing ride through culture.”

“Really interesting … an eye opener,” the young dancer said.

Accompanying Lochlan were school friends Christie Doolin and Michael Goldring.

Christie was interested in the different levels touched upon in the Shen Yun performance, particularly the perspectives on Chinese culture.

“I think it is really good how we get an insight into what they have to deal with in their culture and their history,” he said.

He noted the scenes of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China which continues still, after ten years, in China today

“I thought it was very good. There was a lot about stuff that is not really publicized or anything, so it is really good to see that and get the point of view about what they have to deal with, going through all the persecution and all that,” he said.

Michael Goldring said he has seen Shen Yun every year for the last three years.

“I really love this show. I come every year.”

“It is exciting. I like it.”

Reporting by Shar Adams and Kati Turcu.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. The International Company is in Melbourne now for a six show run till Sunday, March 6. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org