WASHINGTON—A captivated audience honored the Shen Yun Performing Arts dancers and musicians with two curtain calls, cheers and waves, a standing ovation, and frequent applause throughout the show at the Saturday evening performance held at the Kennedy Center.
Mr. and Mrs. Vassor, originally from Haiti, now U.S. citizens, were among the audience enthralled by New York-based company’s performance. Their daughter, who is a dancer, invited them to come to the show.
Mr. Vassor, a banker, felt there was a message for the audience “to teach us to have more tolerance, show more love and to be at peace with ourselves, and search for the truth, for those who don’t know what the truth is and to be truthful.”
“I think it was divine! And I call it a celestial experience on earth! The choreographer depicted celestial imagery right here on earth, I felt really comfortable. It was beautiful and uplifting and I am filled with hope once again,” he said.
Mr. Vassor was particularly moved with “Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution”, a piece set in contemporary China showing a father being persecuted to death for his belief in Falun Dafa, a traditional spiritual practice banned in China under the communist regime.
“The family scene, when they were persecuted and then at the end and you see the father get up and you feel like the soul was going back to the divine, so that was very touching.”
Mrs. Vassor added: “It was the same for me. Dafa way of meditation, to see how they were persecuted for practicing something that they believed in and in the end even if they were persecuted it was not in vain—the soul rises above and goes back to it’s origin. It was wonderful … for us to know that our soul doesn’t belong here, that there’s a place for us to ultimately go and it’s a good thing to take care of it here so we can go to this wonderful place that awaits all of us.”
“We are very happy to witness this wonderful experience,” she said.
'It was really fantastic'
Ms. Yazgan, an employee in an international financial institution, and two little girls Johanna, and Melissa were among a captivated audience that Saturday evening.
"It was really nice, I liked everything about it," said Melissa, also celebrating her birthday.
"The music was very nice, the clothing, the colors, the theme,” Ms. Yazgan said. “It was really fantastic. I liked the movements a lot too."
"The music was really nice too, I liked the music,” young Johanna said. “They were playing really good. The pianist was wonderful. She was really good too.”
NTDTV, a media partner of The Epoch Times, contributed to this article. The original NTD video can be seen at english.ntd.com
Shen Yun is performing one more show at the Kennedy Center on Sunday Aug 30. They will return to the venue from January 20 to 24, 2010 with completely new programs.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
