Westchester audience enjoying Sunday evening's performance. (Edward Dai/The Epoch Times)
"I'm enjoying it very much,” he said. “I've never seen Chinese dancing before. I love the precision. I love the costuming, it's very graceful, it's very vigorous—the men dance very strongly and the women are beautiful and move very gracefully.”
Father Douza attended the show with friends who travel to China for work. “I had dinner with them and they had planned to come, and said, 'Why don't you come along?' So I was completely unprepared, but it's beautiful.”
“I assumed this company [Shen Yun] had come from China, but I see it's based in New York,” he said. “I didn't come prepared so ... you have the case of the man with his family who was persecuted, and I was suprised because I saw they were wearing the communist symbol, the hammer and sickle. I was surprised because I thought the dancers had come from China, but I realize now that wasn't the case. That was very clear, you could see the struggle with the families, finally the redemption. He gets his reward for being faithful to the family and giving his life protecting his family. That was the outline of the story just from watching them move in dance.”
Father Douza was talking about the dance Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution, a story of modern-day China where a father who practices the spiritual discipline Falun Dafa is beaten to death. The scenes that ultimately unfold present a message of hope and bespeak of a longstanding Chinese belief that good people are ultimately rewarded, even if not in this lifetime.
He said he was “struck” by the singing, the tenor and soprano, saying there was a Western feel to the way the songs were sung. “Which is why I understand why there's such good Chinese singers singing Western music as well,” he said. “That was quite a discovery for me, something quite new, I didn't expect that. I was struck by the singing, by the tenor and soprano.”
The dances Welcoming Spring and Drummers of the Tang Court stood out for Father Douza, although he was impressed by the entire show. “I knew Chinese dancing was always beautiful,” he said. “And I know it's very colorful—it's very precise and beautiful.”
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts will be performing two shows in Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 21 and 22, at the Concert Hall, Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. Then a five-run show will be held at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center Opera House from Aug. 26 to 30.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
