‘I just want to escape and go right into it,’ Fashion Designer

Fashion show producer, designer, photographer and writer, Andres Aquino. (Courtesy NTDTV)

NEW YORK—New York has more iconic landmarks than can be named. The art deco Radio City Music Hall, where Shen Yun Performing Arts played two shows on Saturday, is certainly one of them. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue is another.

Fashion show producer, designer, photographer and writer, Andres Aquino visited both landmarks this week. On February 13, he showcased his latest luxury collection as part of Couture Fashion week in New York at the city’s most famous hotel. Then on the night of Feb. 20, he came to see the Shen Yun Touring Company at Radio City.

The top designer described Shen Yun as a “beautiful experience,” and he talked about the show’s ability to transport him into another world.

“When I watch something like this, I just want to escape and go right into it. I want to transport myself to that world, “ he said. “That's what I am at that point, just observing, enjoying, and just taking it all in because it's not so much analyzing, just enjoying what is there, to see this beauty in the way it is presented.”

One of the unique theatrical techniques that Shen Yun is known for is projecting different landscapes and animated scenes onto Radio City’s giant LCD screen backdrop. In this way, audiences are instantly and seamlessly transported to different dynasties, regions and heavenly kingdoms.

“I like the way it is very cleverly done, the backgrounds,” said Mr. Aquino, describing how “each background takes you to different regions in a different time—the spring, by the river or the story of the divine that marries the human and gets stuck on the mountain there.”

“Whatever it's always, you're always there. It's a very minimalistic way to present something so that I think everybody can get it—cross language, cross culture—a which is very interesting,” he said.

The Shun Yun company uses classical Chinese dance—a highly demanding dance system known equally for its grace as for its vigorous leaps and tumbles—to present traditional folks tales and legends while other vignettes give a taste of life in modern China, which still suffers under a repressive dictatorship.

“I think there's so much color and so much folk tales and stories that I’ve been told. Well, this presentation… I think there's a little bit for everyone,” said Mr. Aquino. “And it's not only the fact that you have a story, the main story that underlines the presentation of the freedom of speech … I think there's also just the beauty of the country and the landscape and the dance in the different regions of China that become alive there, so that makes it very very beautiful in many ways”

'I'm just completely charmed'

Ms. S Navidi, the Director of Business Development for an economic analysis firm. (Courtesy NTDTV)

Ms. S Navidi, the Director of Business Development for an economic analysis firm, also attended the Saturday show and gave it a glowing review.

“It was a most wonderful show, a great performance. I'm very impressed. I think it provided a great overview culturally in terms of time and ethnicity and I'm just completely charmed and mesmerized,” she said.

What touched her heart most, Ms. Navida said, was the dance Heavenly Maidens in costumes with layers of colorful flowing fabric adorning maidens from the heavens above creating an unworldly effect on Radio City’s giant stage.

“I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this show,” she added before parting.

With reporting by NTDTV.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org