SEARCH
Three generations of the Will family came to see the New York-based show. Noel Will, a retired financial planner, brought his daughter Natalie, a former dancer and school teacher, and her son to the performance.
Mr. Will said the dancing was “elegant” and “beautiful to look at.”
“I think the classic stories were very interesting. It presented Chinese culture in a way that I found very attractive,” Mr. Will said.
“Here, it was mixed with grace. And that was very important. Very beautiful to watch."
His daughter Natalie was a contemporary dancer and acrobat for fifteen years. She thought the Shen Yun performers’ technique was “fantastic” and “totally amazing.”
“I thought the dance was of an incredible, high standard. The flower dance was divine,” Ms. Will said. She loved the use of props, like the flower-like fans of the Plum Blossom dance, and said she could see the dancers’ high level of skill.
“Everyone was so different, the diversity was fantastic. And the fact that it had such a strong spiritual message, to me, is very important for our times.”
Ms. Will is a teacher in the Steiner school tradition and a practicing Buddhist. She says the images of divine beings depicted in the stunning moving backdrops was in line with her own beliefs.
“It’s very important that human beings rise above the negativity and really maintain their spiritual purity in every way. So it was just beautiful to see the graphics, the backdrops, with the beings coming in and out of the stage,” Ms. Will said.
Mr. Will is also a volunteer for Amnesty International and appreciated the human rights message of the show.
“I can’t understand why the Chinese government would even worry about Falun Gong, I can’t understand it,” he said.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation system that has at its core universal principles; truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, currently oppressed by the Chinese communist regime.
Both father and daughter agreed that anyone thinking of attending the show should definitely come.
“It’s wonderful. Very beautiful,” Ms. Will said.
Reporting by Julia Huang and Daniel Granger.
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
