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BOSTON—Notoriously humble Nobel Prize winner Dudley Herschback has many passions. Winning the 1986 Prize for Chemistry, the former Harvard Professor is also interested in everything from music to baseball. But it was his love for the arts that brought him to Boston's Wang Theatre to see the Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company on Sunday, Feb.13.
“I think art is very important, it fosters creativity,” he said. Shen Yun "is a very fine show, it’s very interesting, there is a lot of variety, and it’s well done.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world's premier classical Chinese dance and music company, and the only Chinese dance company independent of the Chinese communist regime. From the costumes, to the choreography, to the innovative digital backdrop, the production aims to express traditional Chinese culture in perfect detail.
Dr. Herschback was charmed by the legends and animated backdrops in the show, which project lavish landscapes from China behind stories played out on stage. These features come together to transport audiences from ancient dynasties through to life in modern day China.
“I am impressed by the backdrops, those great photographs of scenes in China. Of course it’s an enormous country, so there is a lot of choices in back ground scenes to show. Many people will not realize that China has some spectacular natural beauty spots like that,” he said.
Shen Yun aims to provide audiences with insight on traditional Chinese culture, which includes folk dances of various ethnic groups in the vast geographic regions of the country, such as Tibet and Mongolia.
Dr. Herschbach will be travelling to Hong Kong in April 2011 as a guest speaker at Hong Kong Baptist University, to talk about art, creativity and science.
His granddaughter, Erica also came to the Sunday Shen Yun performance and enjoyed herself immensely.
“It’s really cool!” she said.
For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
