WASHINGTON—An appreciative audience attended a packed house at the Kennedy Center Opera House Friday night, Aug. 28, to see Shen Yun Performing Arts give another outstanding portrayal of traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance and music.
Dr. Spielmann, a university professor who teaches performing arts, and who himself performs and directs shows, was in the audience.
What struck him the most about the performance was the remarkable level of coordination and placement of the performers, saying, “This is one of the most difficult things to achieve.”
“I was very impressed by the discipline of the individual performers who were able to maintain perfect formations on the stage, occupy the space in a geometrically perfect way and then, whenever they are moving around and doing gestures, be perfectly coordinated with the other performers. And that is a very difficult result to obtain on stage.
“Although that might be invisible to many spectators, who might say ‘oh it’s a nice ensemble,’ they don’t realize just how difficult technically it is to get 15 people to do something exactly at the same time and be in the position that displays such great symmetry.
“As a professional, in a sense, and this is something that I tell young people when I train them, very often the highest degree of theatrical and performing skill is not necessarily something that is going to wow an audience, and this show has a lot of striking visual elements. The costumes are beautiful, the dancing is spectacular, but interestingly for someone who does this professionally, some of the almost invisible aspects are more important because you come away with a great respect for the work that went into this.
“I think anyone can appreciate this show, even people who don’t know anything about Chinese culture, or who don’t know anything about dancing. It is a very visually appealing show for a general audience.
“For instance, in the Ladies of the Manchu Court number, in the opening you see a line of woman beautifully dressed who just walk across the stage, and then they stop and then they turn around and start dancing. Most people don’t think anything is happening, they appear to be just walking on stage, but I noticed that they were perfectly spaced.”
Dr. Spielmann had an appreciation of the level of proficiency required for a performance company to tour successfully around the world.
“Every time you come to a new theater and you are touring and you are performing in two days, and every time you have to adapt … and they perfectly adapted and they were perfectly spaced on that stage so that you have to walk in the perfect speed, so it doesn’t look like some were catching up. It was perfectly smooth and then at one point they stop, and that alone is very difficult to do, but the audience might not even see that.”
Dr. Spielmann commented that the show was a good introduction to traditional Chinese culture, saying, “It is an easy introduction, everything is explained, so it is not as if people should feel that this is very esoteric … it is very easy to relate to.”
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts will stage three more shows in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 29 and 30 and return to Kennedy Center again January 20 to 24, 2010, bringing completely new programs.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
