Ms. Wakefield with Mr. Heimans, an investor (Bei Hua/The Epoch Times)
“My favorite part was the one with the pink fans and the drums."
“There's raw power," was how Mr. Heimans, an investor, described the experience.
“The costumes were spectacular. There is just something tangible about them. You know—they look very modern ... So you could wear them today. There were some of the men's costumes that I thought I would wear,” he said.
Ms. Wakefield liked the costumes so much she wanted to buy them—the fans were particularly tempting.
“I love fans, just the grace and how they use them," said Ms. Wakefield.
Each felt that the show was very uplifting.
“Oh gorgeous, yes. Very moving. The whole show is very moving,” said Ms. Wakefield.
“There’s some history ...” said Mr. Heimans. “I don’t think you could take this show to the mainland, obviously.”
The Shen Yun company has not been allowed to visit mainland China. It has performed in Taiwan to sold out theaters and great acclaim.
“It’s hard to capture a history that large in a show this short. It did open up a lot of very nice elements of the culture. I’ve seen a lot of it before, but it’s put together in a very very nice way—it’s just beautiful,” said Mr. Heimans.
He was amazed at how beautifully the Western and Asian instruments blended.
The music played with the erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument, "was powerful and I was very impressed," said Mr. Heimans. He felt erhu's ability to produce sounds could be compared to an amplifier.
The songs are translated on the projected backdrops, and the masters of ceremonies explain the historic or legendary context of the dances.
“You obviously wouldn’t understand unless you had the translations. That helped,” said Mr. Heimans.
“It was the words as much as the music,” he added.
Shen Yun will be traveling to Canada to perform in Toronto Oct. 9–11.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
