ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Ruthie and Solomon, folk dancers, attended the opening night of New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. They saw Shen Yun last year. They had been so impressed with the show that they decided to take this opportunity to bring their family and friends to the show.
"The opening is very exciting, because it's like they are in the clouds, and the clouds actually come across the stage," exclaimed Ruthie.
In the opening program, The Five Millennia Begin, divine beings assemble in heaven to prepare for their descent to earth, where they will impart culture to mankind.
"The backdrop is something that is not in the dancing that we do. The color and all the background—when you see the image as well as the performing, it really comes to life, and sometimes it’s showing something that is coming from the sky and materialize into human [form], and then they goes back to sky,” Solomon said.
In the third dance, The Udumbara’s Bloom the legendary Udumbara flower blossoms in the hands of a larger-than-life digitally animated Buddha statue on the backdrop. The flowers seemingly turn into bejeweled dancers that appear in a dance.
"This is very graceful with their movement, and their costumes are beautiful,” Ruthie said. She noted how the women portray gracefulness and the men strength.
Solomon also commented that the divine message conveyed by the show was very inspirational, and the translation really helped bring that across.
In the song “Hesitate No Longer,” Soprano Pi-ju Huang sings of finding one’s spiritual purpose. The lyrics are translated on the backdrop behind her, including, “A thousand years of reincarnation/Knowing not from whence we came.”
Ruthie thought that this divine message needed to be spread to other parts of the world where some people have lost touch with higher powers.
The performance reminded Mr. Ontai of his heritage.
"It reminds me of back home in Hawaii. When I see the Chinese performers, it reminds me of my grandparents—my cousins and my nieces."
Mr. Ontai appreciated the spectacular colors and choreography in the show. He especially liked Nymphs of the Sea that he considered absolutely beautiful.
Since Mr. Ontai does not speak Chinese, the show is easier to understand due to the projected lyrics, which he called "very helpful."
He also commented on the dances that depict the current situation in China. "Those pieces were very powerful statements about the communist control and its aggressive attempts to control Falun Gong. I think those pieces were very well done. The message was very strong."
In one of the dances, Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution, a father is taken away by police and beaten to the brink of death for practicing the traditional spiritual discipline Falun Dafa. Ultimately, the scenes show that the father is rewarded in heaven for his determined faith on earth.
Mr. Ontai felt these scenes were "very moving. ... Some of the pieces were very, very moving."
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Spring Tour 2009. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
