Engineer Experiences ‘Expansion of Consciousness’

The Great Theater staged the opening night of Shen Yun Performing Arts on Monday, June 14. (Roger Luo/The Epoch Times)

LODZ, Poland—Shen Yun Performing Arts captivated the audience atending Lodz's Great Theater, June 14, the last European destination on the New York-based company's tour this year. Its vision is to revive China's five-millennia-old culture through the fine arts of classical Chinese dance, opera singing and orchestral music.

Waldemar Kopacz is an engineer specializing in electronics from Cracow. He and his wife Natalie drove for three hours to come and see the show. Mr. Kopacz is interested in Chinese philosophy and takes this approach to life having practiced the art of tai chi for many years.

The couple were very impressed. Mr. Kopacz enjoyed the harmonious blend of colours and the "very beautiful costumes. The artist's movements were also very harmonised, beautiful and perfect. The energy created is very warm and positive. One could feel it; you could get filled with it, affecting our physical bodies positively."

Mr. Kopacz also greatly appreciated the solo performance by the erhu player. He commented, "This music moved me strongly, engrossing me in the melody."

The erhu is an ancient two-stringed, fretless instrument and relies simply upon the musician's skilled fingers to produce the notes. It is often compared to the human voice in its tone and diversity of sound, ranging from wistful and melancholic to lively and cheerful.

He explained his experience of the show in a little more depth, saying, "It’s as if I see this energy. I sense it very clearly, so I’m aware of what’s going on here [at the show]."

For Mr. Kopacz, the meaning behind Shen Yun was "the expansion of consciousness, the expansion of the self, the quest for oneness and beauty that we can experience in life."

Mr. Kopacz felt that through the show, the artists are representing both their art form and their practice.

He described the energy of the show as "great … warm and relaxing" and of "quietening one down, down inside, having a positive impact on people."

Concluding, he said, “It’s because it’s a great art form and practice, an expression for us of aesthetic experience. We wanted to experience something like this. It meets our expectations!”

'So beautiful, like in a fairytale'

Krystyna Sypniewska is a retired building engineer and helped to develop the Great Theater. She regularly attends shows at the venue.

Ms. Sypniewska enjoyed Shen Yun and described it as "so beautiful, like in a fairytale so it is simply like walking out of a different dimension".

She understood the "peaceful messages" behind the show, mentioning that she and other Polish people were very concerned about what happened at Tiananmen Square and about the current struggles of the Chinese people under the communist regime.

Ms. Sypniewska concluded, "Let God bring hope to the whole world. Thank you.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts will present one more show at the Teatr Wiekel/Great Theater on Wednesday, June 16 at 7pm. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org