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Hungarian-born Mary Leveleki, now aged 91, came to Australia 53 years ago at a time when her motherland was suffering under communism.
She came to see New York-based Shen Yun with her daughter, Judy Karaolis, and friend, Celia Martiren, from East Timor.
All three loved the show as much as they had last year.
“Very good, excellent. I like the expression, I like the whole thing,” Mrs. Leveleki said.
Her daughter, Mrs. Karaolis agreed, “We loved it, I think visually it's fantastic. It’s extremely graceful and I think [it] is a nice exposure to other cultures.”
Shen Yun’s story begins with a talented group of artists in the Chinese diaspora and a shared vision of cultural renewal. Over the past 60-plus years under communist rule—and especially during campaigns such as the Cultural Revolution—much of China’s traditional culture was destroyed.
But China has a 5,000-year history steeped in rich values and the idea that humanity and the divine are intertwined. This idea is built into the name Shen Yun, which in context, translates as “the beauty of divine beings dancing."
And beautiful they are too, according to Mrs. Karaolis who ran out of adjectives to describe the show.
“Very gentle, very graceful, very tolerant, very heroic … what else can I say? They are struggling against evil, against bad influences, the spiritual comes through,” she said.
Her mother Mrs. Leveleki was more to the point.
“It’s a fight between good and bad; the evil that’s going on, and they are fighting for good, this way, the gentle way, expressing that they want this.”
Ms. Marterin said she enjoyed the show very much. It's “very graceful, even the men were graceful, it was very beautiful.”
Ms. Karaolis added, “The colours are extraordinary, the music is very nice. Chinese and classical instruments work very well together,” she concluded.
Reporting by Shar Adams and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.
Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is performing at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, through to Feb. 23. Next stop is Melbourne, March 1-6. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing
