Performing Arts Center Director Promotes Shen Yun

TULSA, Okla.—The Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour performed at the impressive half block long Tulsa Performing Arts Center in downtown Tulsa, the Mecca for the arts in Oklahoma, on Wednesday night, March 18. The enthralled audience cheered and gave a standing ovation.

Ms. Nancy Hermann, marketing director for the Tulsa Perfoming Arts Center and editor of Intermission magazine, resisted pressure from the communist regime and promoted the performance. She had not yet seen it.

Ms. Hermann helped to promote the Shen Yun show because she “believed in this project. … It's easy to help people who are passionate about something, because you know it means a lot to them, and if you can see it means a lot to them, then it means a lot to you.”

She said: "I'm the editor of the magazine, so I put the picture on the cover of our magazine Intermission, and I got the picture on the cover of Preview Magazine, which is another magazine, and then we ran a full page in Tulsa People, and I called the Tulsa World and told them that I really wanted them to support this, because I believe in it. So we do a lot of marketing, and so we just helped. I helped [another marketer], because she was setting up TV, so I helped set up print, and she helped set up TV and got on lots of TV shows. You know, all that we could do.”

Ms. Hermann said that a Chinese person had called her and asked her to stop supporting the Shen Yun show. She refused to do so, saying, “'This is America and people can express a viewpoint. That's what we're about here. So, we're not going to tell someone they can't express a viewpoint. People can come or not come if they like or not like it.' So, I was not very sympathetic and the person on the phone kind of backed down.” Ms. Hermann laughed.

Before Ms. Hermann was asked to stop supporting Shen Yun, she knew very little about Falun Dafa so she decided to find out and checked many websites. She checked out DivinePerformingArts.org and “read a lot about it, and then I read about what people are saying across the country about the show, and then I read a report about what the Chinese government was saying about the show. I just read a whole lot.”

Ms. Hermann said she has no political impression about the show. In her opinion, the content which alludes to Falun Dafa should not offend anyone. " I don't think anyone will be upset about it." Two of the dances are set in contemporary China, and portray a father attacked by Chinese Communist Party members and a woman imprisoned for belief in Falun Dafa.

She felt "very sensitive to persecution." When she read what the Chinese communist regime said about the company, she was uncomfortable. "I'll tell you what it made me feel: It made me feel like when I saw the Olympics: That all the power that I saw being expressed was more scary than entertaining.”

Ms. Hermann felt it was important not to bow down to threats. She informed her staff about what she had learned in case they also had threatening phone calls.

“I did mention to people in our office that we did have someone call about this, so just in case someone calls you I want to give you the background.

“I really did not know about—I mean, some of the things I read were atrocious. …"

Ms. Hermann was referring to live organ harvesting carried out on living Falun Gong practitioners in China today. For more information please go to cipfg.org/en/

The executive learned about a serious issue in contemporary China before she saw the performance. Once she did see it, she responded with pleasure and joy. She said “It was very beautiful. I loved learning about the culture, and I think it really helped to have the announcers come out and explain what we are going to see and then see it. It made it come to life, knowing the stories behind it beforehand was extra special. I loved the music.”
 
Ms. Hermann’s reaction to hearing the erhu, also known as the traditional Chinese violin, was “Oh, that was just beautiful—just gorgeous.”

“I was very impressed with the athleticism of the dancers. I thought that they were planning to be just props for the costumes, but no, they were really strikingly talented dancers. She most loved Dance of the Yi, and said "Visually, it was very stunning. The one where they had the striped dresses and so when they were swirling around it was beautiful."

Shen Yun is performing three shows in Hartford, Connecticut, March 21–22, on the next leg of the 2009 World Tour.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit shenyunperformingarts.org