Mr. Alex Chun. (Courtesy of Shen Yun Performing Arts)

Nine scorching suns fill the backdrop as colorful dancers leap across the stage and complete highly complicated flips and tumbles. In the midst of the depicted chaos, an old, bearded Taoist master slowly enters the scene. He captures the audiences’ attention with his humble grandeur.

It’s rare to come across someone who has stellar dance skills, and also a natural, majestic, elegance that can portray the character of a Taoist master, but Alex Chun possesses it all.

Mr. Chun, from Noisiel, France, arrived in New York in 2007 to attend Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, a chartered school specializing in the classical Chinese dance training and art form. After passing rigorous exams, Mr. Chun was chosen to participate in the practicum performances at Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance company whose mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.

In addition to ethnic dances, Shen Yun also performs mini-dramas that retell ancient Chinese myths and legends, further incorporating the essence of Chinese culture.

For instance, the group dance, Lady of the Moon, tells a myth about the world being destroyed by the appearance of nine suns in the sky. In this myth, the lady of the moon’s husband, Hou Yi, is tasked with saving the world from boiling heat.

Mr. Chun’s Taoist role plays a critical part in the story.

Hou Yi would not have been able to defeat the suns without the help of the elderly Taoist master, who imparts him wisdom and a magical bow and arrow. Mr. Chun was able to capture the essence and air of an immortal transmitting truth to a follower.

“The choreographers like to have me perform these roles,” Mr. Chun said. “They say that I am able to portray the feelings and transmit them to the audience.”

Mr. Chun carries a Taoist whisk, a large horsetail brush that is also a well-known Chinese weapon often used in traditional Taoist martial arts. Proper handling of the whisk prop not only requires agility, but also a harmony of temperament and spirit, which Mr. Chun embraces.

Mr. Chun has also been chosen to portray multiple noble and wise figures from Chinese history and literature. He was chosen by choreographers to play Xuan Zang in the 2010 dance based on the classical Chinese literary text, Journey to the West.

The story is based on a historical monk, Xuan Zang, who is said to have journeyed from China to India to bring Buddhist scriptures to China during the Tang Dynasty. The attributes of this historical figure is said to have a majesty and solemnity of spiritual wisdom.

Bearing is one of the main components of classical Chinese dance.

Mr. Chun has the exceptional bearing to portray such a character. Bearing is one of the main components of classical Chinese dance. It is the specific inner spirit of the dance movements that comes from 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

“If you just practice the techniques many times, you will improve. But bearing is different,” Mr. Chun said. “You have to take the time to develop bearing; the process of each movement has to be thought through very thoroughly.”

Bearing focuses on control over breath, intent, and deep emotional expression in order to capture a specific aura for a dancer’s particular role. “People say I can have that [solemn] presence on stage,” Mr. Chun said. “This presence creates a type of character that transmits a message to the audience.

“I’m a pretty introverted person in my everyday life,” he said. “But on stage, I feel different when I communicate with the audience.”

Mr. Chun also has a rare, natural talent to communicate various roles to the audience. He can play a wide range of characters, from evil ones to Taoist masters.

Technique

In addition to superb acting skills and bearing, Mr. Chun has also mastered the technical aspects of classical Chinese dance.

Classical Chinese dance requires extensive training in advanced technical skills, such as combinations of complicated jumps and leaps, turns, and flips. Mastering these techniques enhances bearing and form.

Mr. Chun’s favorite is the “540,” an advanced variation of the tornado kick.

Mr. Chun’s favorite is the “540,” an advanced variation of the tornado kick.

A tornado kick is a 360 degree kick, which the advanced version turns into a 540 degree kick in order to land on a different leg. For the past couple of years, Chun has been doing 100 “540′s” a day as a part of his daily routine dance training.

NTD Dance Competition

In 2009, Mr. Chun entered New Tang Dynasty Television’s International Classical Dance Competition, the only competition that competes in classical Chinese dance on an international scale. Chinese dance professionals have been competing from all over the world since 2007.

Mr. Chun’s character for the competition was an injured warrior. “It wasn’t hard for me to develop the feeling.” He said he pondered deeply on the internal struggle a soldier could face when he wants to fight, but is held back by his crippled body.

“I made it to the finals for my ability to portray characters,” he said. “It was about portraying the pain with determination.

“At the end of the dance, it was determination that gave me energy to forget about my injury and return to battle,” he said.

“Gymnasts and acrobats have great techniques, but it’s not classical Chinese dance, there’s no inner meaning portrayed,” he said. “We emphasize bearing more than technique, that’s what classical Chinese dance is really all about.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts

Mr. Chun said he never considered going to another dance company. He said there are various talented Chinese dance groups in mainland China, but they incorporate “modern techniques” and “morbid” aspects that did not exist in traditional Chinese culture.

“I plan on dancing with Shen Yun for as long as I can, it’s unlike any other performing arts group,” he said. “Their mission is different; it is visionary and noble.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts has a mission to revive China’s 5,000-year-old divinely bestowed history.

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Nancy Xiangnan Wang. (Courtesy of Shen Yun Performing Arts)

NEW YORK—Born and raised in Australia, Nancy Xiangnan Wang has developed a passion for dance since childhood. In pursuit of her dreams, she chose to study a dance form at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts that she was not exposed to as a young girl, classical Chinese dance, and continued onto dancing by practicum arrangement in Shen Yun Performing Arts, a capsule of the elegant dance form.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, although founded in 2006 in New York, was already an established and growing world-touring company. The moment Ms. Wang saw Shen Yun’s first-season performance in Australia in 2007 she was captivated.

“I was deeply moved,” Ms. Wang said, in her subtle yet steady tone. “I thought that I would feel very honored to one day be one of the dancers on stage. I decided to go for an audition for Fei Tian Academy of the Arts.” And that was the beginning of her endeavor in classical Chinese dance and to a dream come true—dancing in Shen Yun through its practicum arrangement with Fei Tian.

An Enlightening Career

When she first studied and trained at Fei Tian five years ago, she was adept at dancing, but that was nothing close to classical Chinese dance. “Classical Chinese dance is quite different from other dance systems, because it emphasizes bearing and the expression of inner feelings,” Ms. Wang said. “I think one has to change from the inside. It is not merely surface movements and techniques, but it comes purely from the heart.”

Even though Ms. Wang later rose to become a recognized dancer at Shen Yun New York Company, one of its three touring companies, she has held true to herself and the inner qualities that the dance form requires. When asked about her role as a profiled dancer, her usual humble self replied with a smile and a lingering Australian accent, “I think it means you are the same as everybody else.”

“Our company manager often tells us, dance is something that has no end to learning,” she continued. “You would always be learning. Every day you would be able to learn something new. No matter who you are and what you do, you just have to keep trying and trying.”

A Shen Yun Jewel

With her persistence and attentiveness, she has found her place in the company—and it is quite a place. Even though Shen Yun usually features large-scale group dances that emphasize overall effects instead of individual talents, Ms. Wang never fails to stand out.

While Ms. Wang encompasses all the necessary qualities of a female classical Chinese dancer, from grace and poise to smoothness and delicacy, she also has a side to her that makes her unique among the others.

She is one with determination and inner strength—qualities that are put to particularly good use in the opening piece of Shen Yun’s 2010-2011 program, where she performed as the lead female drummer.

In the year prior, Ms. Wang took on her first major role with Shen Yun in a piece depicting a traditional folklore called Splitting the Mountain. The Chinese legend begins with a forbidden love affair between a mortal and a goddess, played by Ms. Wang, which infuriated the goddess’s brother, the three-eyed deity Erlang Shen.

Left in disbelief, Erlang Shen imprisoned the goddess, named San Sheng Mu, inside one of China’s sacred Taoist mountains, Mount Hua. The piece reaches its climax when the only son between the goddess and the mortal decides to train in martial arts with a Taoist master and eventually defeats his uncle in a combat and splits open the mountain, freeing his mother.

I had to bring a legendary character onto myself and convey it to the audience.

—Ms. Wang

Ms. Wang described the experience as the protagonist as a “particularly memorable” one. “When I was taking up this role I needed to put in a considerable amount of effort to study and analyze the character. … I had to bring a legendary character onto myself and convey it to the audience.”

And indeed she did. With her performances in Asia-Pacific that season, her audience members from Suwon in South Korea to Taipei echoed similar praises for her performance.

“It was fantastic,” said South Korea’s National Defense University professor Dr. Hwang Jong-seong in reference to Splitting the Mountain. “How did people create such a good piece of work?”

A month after Dr. Hwang watched the show, Ms. Wu, a leader in Taipei’s financial sector saw the same production in Taipei’s Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in mid-March. She singled out Ms. Wang’s piece and said, “Although there were only several scenes which lasted for a few minutes, the entire content of the legendary story was completely conveyed, and made the audience understand it. So, it’s really superb.”

Ms. Wang took on her next major role in the 2011-2012 season, where she portrayed the lead mountain fairy in the piece The Dafa Practitioner’s Magical Encounter, a modern tale about a practitioner of Falun Dafa responding to persecution of the traditional meditation practice in China. In this story, Ms. Wang’s character first descends from the rocks in the mountain in the stage-wide digital backdrops before she has to seamlessly transition the character live on stage.

All the Way to a Bronze

In between her trainings and studies at Fei Tian and performances with Shen Yun over the past half a decade, Ms. Wang also took the time to participate in NTD Television’s International Classical Chinese Dance Competition in 2009 and 2010, where in the latter year she received a bronze award in the competition’s adult female division.

Ms. Wang, who said of the competition as “quite an experience,” portrayed an adored legendary Chinese character, Lady of the Moon, in the 2009 competition, and played a plum blossom in the snow for the 2010 competition.

I wanted to include all the techniques that I have learned, and at the same time through those techniques, I wanted to convey my messages to my audience.

—Ms. Wang

“I wanted to include all the techniques that I have learned, and at the same time through those techniques, I wanted to convey my messages to my audience,” Ms. Wang said of her plum blossom dance, which took about three, four months in preparation prior to the summer competition.

Ms. Wang said she chose to portray a plum blossom, a beloved flower that grows on ancient trees found throughout China, for it represents “an undeterred personality.”

“It is a type of flower that lives in the harsh, cold weather. It is very strong,” she said. “It reaches its full bloom when the winter arrives at its coldest and the wind gets to the chilliest.”

Ms. Wang said that she wanted to capture the strength of the plum blossom and make that strength her own. “While dancing, I would think of those people who have never been deterred for the sake of justice and their beliefs, like plum blossoms. In such trying conditions, they would continue to hold onto their faith instead of yielding to the evil. I wanted to convey such message to the audience.”

A Well-Loved Person

Ms. Wang’s grace and thoughtfulness are not only with her onstage. Her fellow dancers have often described her as a caring and strong person with a warm heart.

Her amicable nature has also brought her to countless VIP receptions and after parties, including one at Washington’s Kennedy Center in January 2011, where she and her fellow performers gained praise from Hungarian ambassador György Szapáry, Stephen L. Norris, co-founder of the powerful private equity firm, The Carlyle Group; and Annette Lantos, chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and wife of former congressman Tom Lantos.

Ms. Wang, who has just returned from the 2011-2012 season of performances, said she and her colleagues have already begun to train and rehearse for next season’s new program. She said for as long as classical Chinese dance needs her, “I’ll be here.” Ms. Wang has performed in more than 500 classical Chinese dance productions.

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Ms. Seron Shinn Chau. (Courtesy of Shen Yun Performing Arts)

At her competitive Fei Tian Academy audition in Sydney in 2007, Seron Shinn Chau counted 60-some candidates aspiring to enter the prestigious academy. As the field was whittled down through various tests and exercises, the talent evaluators said not a word to her. But they were observing, and eventually, they pointed to her and another applicant, taking them backstage for specific dance and technical routines.

In the end, Ms. Chau was the only one of the field of 60 selected to enter the rigorous and rewarding training, a program that put her on the path to participate in a practicum as a dancer for Shen Yun, the premier international classical Chinese dance company.

She joined Shen Yun’s New York Company in the practicum through Fei Tian Academy of the Arts and has toured dozens of cities on four continents since her auspicious audition for the Academy.

Ms. Chau grew up in Australia. Her first language is English, but she also speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. Though she attended Chinese school for seven years in Australia, she says, “I learned a lot about my heritage when I danced with Shen Yun.”

The ‘Flavor’ of Dance

“For Chinese dance, it’s not just about the technique,” said Ms. Chau. “It’s the shen yun shen fa, the flavor of classical Chinese dance. That’s something that you can never stop learning about, no matter how developed as a dancer you are, because it has to do with Chinese culture.”

She elaborated on the “flavor” of Chinese dance. “For girls, you have the pretty stuff. Classical Chinese dance has moves that represent you’re a shy kind of girl, a proper, modest Chinese woman—but then you have some moves that represent you’re a strong kind of girl, you might be representing a warrior.

“When you dance with a sword, it’s a completely different flavor than if you dance with a pretty, fluffy little fan or a handkerchief.”

Outstanding Expressiveness

Ms. Chau is noted for outstanding expressiveness on stage. She highlights this strength in her dance competition appearances.

Ms. Chau advanced to the semifinals of the 2011 NTD Television’s International Classical Chinese Dance Competition. She portrayed the mythical character Chang’e from the Shen Yun dance The Lady of the Moon. In the story, Chang’e drinks an elixir of immortality and flies to the moon. Ms. Chau performed the dance portraying beauty and grace in a long, flowing vibrant golden-orange gown that accentuated her elegant spin moves.

Shen Yun performs ethnic folk dances, in addition to classical Chinese dance pieces. The ethnic dances may include Tibetan, Mongolian, Dai, Yi, or Korean, among others. Ms. Chau talked about the range required for the diverse ethnic dances.

“They all have their owns styles, they’re all distinctive,” she said. “We have to learn so many ethnicities. Some people [in other dance companies] might specialize in say, Mongolian, but as Fei Tian dancers who perform at Shen Yun, we might have five different ethnic dances and we have to learn them all, and make them all so that we are dancing them with flavor. You have to bring depth to it.”

“I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” said Ms. Chau, acknowledging the unlimited potential of the art form of Chinese dance. “With every performance and tour you mature in your understanding as to what you’re doing. The programs are getting harder and harder every year.”

Audience Appreciation

The dancers practice, train, and study really hard most of the year, and have about a 5-month performing season. “It’s really worth it,” said Ms. Chau, “performing for the audience, and all the hard work. You just can’t wait to perform and go on tour again, and sometimes when you’re performing on tour, you can’t wait to rest.

“As a performer, you see the audience’s reaction, it changes your outlook on things, you just feel like it’s worth it.”

She elaborated her understanding on Shen Yun’s special mission as an arts company.

“With Shen Yun they are trying to revive Chinese culture, and I feel very honored to be part of that in my performances.

“We hear about a lot of audience feedback, especially from people from China. They always say, ‘Shen Yun is the future for China,’ because a lot of China’s most traditional, basic culture is all forgotten, especially by the youth, because the communist party has destroyed too much of it.”

She was alluding to the Cultural Revolution and other mass movements by the current regime to erase or bend Chinese history and traditional culture for the regime’s own purposes. To Ms. Chua, Shen Yun, by contrast, aims to revive and restore China’s five millennia of history, tales of heroism and virtue, and arts filled with the most noble characteristics of humanity.

Ms. Chau said, “I guess, through the language of classical Chinese dance, we are like the pioneers for the future, in reviving Chinese culture.”

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Ms. Chia-Ling Chen. (Courtesy of Shen Yun Performing Arts)

NEW YORK—Ms. Chia-Ling Chen has her philosophy of dance. It isn’t about the technique, she said, but the inner meaning and messages that the dance conveys.

“If a dancer only has skill, then he/she would just be a machine that does acrobatics,” she said.

Ms. Chen was fortunate enough to dance with Shen Yun Performing Arts in 2007, through a practicum arrangement, and has been touring annually the world since. This year, she led the Taiwanese Amei dance In the Mountains, and instead of practicing for skill, she focused on learning about the Amei ethnic group while preparing for the performance.

Her approach is a successful one. She won bronze prize at the New Tang Dynasty Television International Classical Chinese Dance Competition twice—in the junior female division in 2009, and in the adult female division in 2010.

In the 2009 competition, she performed Fragrant Lotus. The dance focuses on expressing the special quality of the lotus, viewed by Chinese as a plant representing noble character, as it grows out of mud to rise above the water. She started the dance by sitting cross-legged to convey how the lotus grows from the mud, followed by jumps to show the transcending character.

Ms. Chen said that she wanted to portray the goodness of the lotus, and to do this, she kept a calm mind while dancing, setting the mood of a character that grows up in a bad environment but is uninfluenced by it.

Art should be used to bring goodness to people, Ms. Chen said.

“After you’ve seen a painting, its image will stay in your brain. Or, after listening to a piece of music, it is easy to remember the melody, and it’ll remain in your head and you won’t forget it,” she explained.

“So I think that art can leave goodness in people’s hearts. If it’s a beautiful, pure, and positive art, people will be astounded after seeing it, and the goodness will stay with them. On the other hand, if the art portrays something bad, after seeing it, it will also stay in your head.”

In the 2010 competition, Chen performed Fairy Dancing in a Spring, a piece characterized by the use of the costume—a white dress with blue on the bottom, signifying water. The dance includes sophisticated techniques in movements that control how the dress moves, showing a scene that resembles a fairy dancing amid running water.

One would think that she would want to keep her secrets to the great technical skills that she has mastered, but she shares it with her fellow dancers, thinking that dancers who work together should support one another.

Dancers should “dance for the whole performance and not for yourself, that is, to let go of your personal desires,” Ms. Chen said.

“If among a group of 20 dancers only two people can do the front aerial, then only these two people would be able to do it in a dance,” she explained. “But if all 20 people can do it, then everyone would be able to perform it in the dance, and the quality of the dance would improve.”

Artists of today, are you able to be selfless and work to bring goodness to this world?

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Minister for Status of Women Rona Ambrose (C) is seen here with authors Aruna Papp (R) and Barbara Kay at the launch of their book titled “Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter’s Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love.” Minister Ambrose said she commends the authors for drawing attention to “acts of violence committed in the name of ‘honour’ with their new book.” “Aruna Papp demonstrates that the barbaric practices associated with ‘honour’-motivated violence have no place in Canada, and that we must reject them using clear language of freedom and equality,” she said in praising Papp for having the courage to speak out through her book. “I hope that my book will encourage community leaders from all countries where gendered inequities flourish to break the silence on, and the cycle of, honour-motivated abuse,” said Papp. (Status of Women Canada)

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Movistar's Francesco Ventoso crosses the finish line to win Stage Nine of the Giro d'Italia. (movistarteam.com)

Movistar’s Francesco Ventoso won Stage Nine of the Giro d’Italia After a crash in the final 300 meters sidelined most of the top-tier sprinters.

Ventoso came from third wheel to overtake Best Young Rider Damiano Caruso of Liquigas and RadioShack’s Giacomo Nizzolo, then held off a late surge from Androni’s Fabio Felline to take his second career Giro stage win.

The final several kilometers of the 166-km stage were tricky, with four small hills which offered great launching points for attacks, lots of turns, and a very sharp left-hander in the final 300 meters.

It was this last turn which caused Pozzato to hit Matt Goss, in a crash which claimed Mark Cavendish, J.J. Haedo, Nikolas Maes and Mark Renshaw.

“I knew I was too far from the top places, but when I saw there were some riders not taking it properly, I saw a chance coming for me,” Ventoso told Velonation.com

“I came into good position through the turn and knew that had to go on full steam until the finish. Nizzolo was really far, but I started recovering bit by bit and I was only thinking of not being overcome like him and keeping the lead until the line.

“To tell the truth, I haven’t had many chances in the sprints until today,” Ventoso continued. “I saved every bit of energy I could for this second week because I knew sprints like this would be happening, and we could snatch the win at the first attempt. We were really close to winning in the last few stages, and today’s victory was the reward for that consistency and that superb level by all the team.”

Short Stage, Tough Finish

Stage Nine, San Giorgio nel Sannio to Frosinonem was short, particularly by the standards of this Giro, and mostly flat, with a few short hills in the final several kilometers and several sharp bends in the final approach.

A breakaway formed almost from the start with Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel,) Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol,) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil) opening a gap of almost four minutes, but they had to know all along they were doomed—this was one of the final few stages for the sprinters, with the rest coming after a series of mountain stages likely to thin the ranks.

Martijn Keizer attacked the fading breakaway 32 km from the finish, ansd stayed in front until 17 km from the end. With everyone together and the hills and twists coming, the attacks started.

Lotto’s Dennis Venendert was the first to try, ten km from the line. He lasted a kilometer. Next to go was Farnese’s Matteo Rabottinin, who was quickly overtaken by Lotto’s Gaëten Bille and Colnago’s Sonny Colbrelli.

This pair was joined by two Katusha riders, Angel Vicioso and Joaquin Rodriguez, only none seconds down in the General Classification. This would have been an ingenious move, if it had worked.

Rodriguez attacked this group with six km to go, but he was ridden down just past the five-km banner.

Farnese’s Filippo Pozzato made a half-hearted attempt with a Colnago and Omega rider, but really opened no gap. Androni’s Fabio Felline took off next, and lasted 700 meters until he was caught.

Just past the three-km banner Lotto’s Adam Hansen made a strong attack, but he too was caught up by the peloton, driven by Orica GreenEdge.

Coming into the final kilometer GreenEdge had two riders in front of their sprinter Matt Goss, no other team was able to organize.

Mark Cavendish was seen remonstrating with his Sky teammates earlier in the stage; coming to the finish, he was on his own, 20 riders back and moving up on the far right.

Next: The Crash

Movistar's Francesco Ventoso (R) beats Fabio Felline (L) and Damiano caruso (2L) across the the finish line. (movistarteam.com)

GreenEdge took Goss through the twisting final kilometer with Felippo Pozzato on his wheel. Goss ran a bit wide through the final very tight left turn; Pozzato should have. Instead, the Farnese rider tried to cut inside Goss, and lost the front wheel, sliding sideways and cutting down the GreenEdge sprinter.

Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw and Sky’s Mark Cavendish were forced all the way to the right-hand barrier trying to avoid Goss and pozzato, but Moga’s Nikolas Maes also fell and took Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo down; Haedo crashed into Cavendish.

BMC’s Danilo Wyss barely stopped before running over Cavendish; Vacansoleil’s Tomasz Marczynski went down hard trying to avoid the bunch.

After the crash, RadioShack’s Giacomo Nizzolo had the lead, and he took off at full chat, but his legs weren’t up to 300 meters’ sprint. Damiano Caruso jumped onto his wheel, while Ventoso came from further back to latch onto Caruso. As Nizzolo slowed, Ventos came around  heading for the finish, with Andrioni’s Felline on his wheel. Felline swung right and surged for the line, but too late—Ventoso took the win.

No Sprint Finish Tuesday

Stage Ten, 186 km from Civitavecchia to Assisi, is a hilly stage with a Cat 4 uphill finish. This finish will be particularly tough because it is really a double climb.

The final four kilometers start with a climb with a grade up to 15 percent, a quick descent and then the final Cat 4 which hits eleven percent in the middle and falls off to 5.6 percent. It is almost guaranteed that riders will attack here; with Joaquim Rodriguez and Paolo Tirolongo within 15 seconds of leader Ryder Hesjedal and a dozen riders within a minute of the lead, a lot of riders will be thinking of tightening up the gaps before this weekend’s big mountain stages.

This is also a stage where a breakaway might succeed. With no hope for the sprinters, a handful of riders far enough down in the GC could possibly survive, though there is a flat section in the 20 km before the final climbs where the peloton could really chase hard.

Marilyn Ciancio shares her Shen Yun Performing Arts experience at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo. (Courtesy of NTD Television)

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Marilyn Ciancio has had a long history of active work in the arts and community initiatives that promote the arts. She was the producer and host of Artscope, which aired on Time Warner television for 14 years, and has also worked as an arts correspondent for a talk show.

Ms. Ciancio, who was named a 2005 New York State Woman of Distinction, which honors women in New York State who exemplify personal excellence, took in Shen Yun Performing Arts at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo on Friday, May 11.

The performance, Ms. Ciancio said, is “the most professional, and beautiful, inspiring kind of production that I’ve seen for dance and history.”

Featuring colorful and exhilarating performances of classical Chinese dance and music, New York-based Shen Yun presents traditional Chinese culture “as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled form the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” according to the Shen Yun website.

For Ms. Ciancio, the show was simply “magnificent.”

“It’s just emotionally moving, and the spontaneity of it all; the choreography is beautiful, the costumes are great, and they’re spontaneous and synchronized perfectly,” Ms. Ciancio said.

She appreciated learning about China’s history and culture through the show, and praised the show’s emcees who provided background information about each scene.

I love the history of it. I think it’s important to learn the history of the Chinese culture.

“I love the history of it. I think it’s important to learn the history of the Chinese culture,” Ms. Ciancio said.

“It’s a learning experience, it’s entertaining, and it is emotionally moving.”

Referring to the scenes showing the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners by the Chinese communist regime in today’s China, Ms. Ciancio said she was emotional watching the “struggles that the Chinese people have to endure, and in some cases, still are enduring.”

But she also saw other themes in the performance.

“You also see the patriotism, and the country, and the unification … of the dancers and their feelings.”

Watching Shen Yun, in fact, brought Ms. Ciancio “much closer” to the Chinese culture, she said.

Through the show, “you feel the unity of the people, the dancers; everything that’s related to the whole thing is heart-warming. It’s just so fully accepting.”

Ms. Ciancio’s granddaughter, Justine Bessinger, a senior high school student and a ballet dancer, was amazed by the timing of the dancers in the performance.

“It’s very inspiring … we can’t do some of those movements, and it’s just amazing to watch,” she said.

Elaborating further, Ms. Bessinger praised the choreography.

“You can just tell that they all work together and they just love what they’re doing, and that’s amazing to watch.”

Also coming to watch the show with Ms. Ciancio was Michael Dambrosio, a former director in Customs and Border Protection, before retiring.

“I’m really enjoying it. I find it charming. I love the colors. I love the choreography,” Mr. Dambrosio said.

He was also amazed by the animated digital backdrops used in the performance.

“I really like the interplay between the film, the large screen in the background, and then the characters actually coming down to the stage and appearing as real people,” Mr. Dambrosio said.

“I think that’s fantastic.”

With reporting by NTD Television

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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LaVonne and Fajri Ansari stand outside Shea's Performing Arts Center Friday night after sharing their thoughts about Shen Yun Performing Arts. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Two of Buffalo’s finest were left thoughtful and moved after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at Shea’s Performing Arts Center on Friday night, May 11.

Fajri Ansari, an imam at a local mosque, and baskeball coach at Buffalo State, and his wife, Lavonne Ansari, CEO of the Community Health Center of Buffalo, were among the full-house audience that took in the show.

Dr. Lavonne Ansari, who has a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education, said she “loved it.”

“It was very natural, peaceful, and while extraordinary at the same time. Made you think of nature and humanity. That’s really what came to mind immediately.”

She said the music presented by the Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra was “phenomenal.”

“It was very peaceful, expressive. You can feel it, and it didn’t matter what ethnicity you were, you could feel the music. It was very universal.”

Shen Yun’s one-of-a-kind orchestra, with its all-original compositions, combines classical Western and Chinese instruments like no other, says the Shen Yun website.

Shen Yun left her husband, Mr. Ansari, thinking about the importance of preserving one’s culture, and cultural changes in the United States.

Shen Yun tours the world on a mission to revive the essence of traditional Chinese culture, a 5,000-year heritage that has been all but destroyed in mainland China after 60 years of communist rule.

“It’s important to preserve culture,” said Mr. Ansari.

He said Shen Yun preserved that culture and presented it in a powerful way.

“It’s also telling stories: the struggle of good against evil and self expression, freedom,” he said.

Several of the dances in the performance include moves reminiscent of Chinese martial arts, an aspect of Chinese culture Mr. Ansari said he has been fascinated with.

“I was watching a lot of the movement,” he noted.

Overall, he said he was just quite impressed with the performance.

“It was great, the orchestra was phenomenal, the way women use the fans … The costumes were all beautiful,” he said.

There was also an element of beauty present in Shen Yun that is relatively uncommon in most modern performances, a femininity that doesn’t try to sell itself through exposed skin.

“The costumes and everything were expressive, melodious, and look at the contrast to [music] videos where parts of the body have to kind of like sell the performance,” Mr. Ansari said.

“Well here, all the costumes, you wouldn’t even think about it because it’s just something that’s internal that’s being expressed. This is how they are able to show how you can create a human flower, so to speak.”

The Buffalo Urban League recently recognized the Ansari’s contributions to their community by presenting the couple with the Family Life Award in 2011.

The award is given annually to recognize an outstanding family who serves as role models for others and has raised their children with values that are carried on for generations.

Mr. Ansari was honoured for his 30-year career at Buffalo State, the last eight years as head coach for the Bengals Basketball team. His efforts to build a championship program won the Bengals the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Division III Tournament in the 2010-2011 season.

But he also works to make sure his players graduate, and during his years at the university’s admissions office, he ensured that less fortunate students had access to higher education through the college’s Equal Opportunity Program. At the same time, he coached boys’ basketball at Turner Carroll High School and created Camp Achieve, which provides SAT prep work, life skills training and basketball coaching to Buffalo youth.

Mr. Ansari has also served as president and board member of the Network of Religious Communities, the largest interdenominational organization in Western New York.

Dr. LaVonne Ansari now serves as CEO and executive director of the Community Health Center of Buffalo Inc.

She was honoured for her advocacy work in health, education, and human rights.

Dr. Ansari was the first Muslim African American female Vice President of Niagara County Community College and was the Director of Rehabilitation Occupation and Recreation Therapy for Psychiatry at Buffalo General Hospital. She serves as a member of the Mayor’s Citizens’ Rights and Community Relations Commission and Mosque Cares Board of Education.

Dr. Ansari was awarded the Niagara Falls Black Achiever’s Award, International League of Muslim Women and the Interfaith Community Award and the 40 Under Forty Award.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

A local real estate investor, John Apgar, who saw the performance on Friday evening, May 11, at the Shea’s Performing Arts Center in downtown Buffalo, couldn’t help but notice the intricate scenery on the backdrop that accompanied each dance.

He joked that he would be interested in investing in it.

“Show me the way,” he jested.

Mr. Apgar, who was at the theater with friends, was impressed with how the dancers synchronized their movements with the change of the scenes on the backdrops.

Like when the Monkey King, a beloved Chinese character who is introduced to the audience in one of the dances, dropped down from the mountain on the digital screen and jumped up on the stage instantaneously. “I think it’s really neat how they come out … there they are, just live all of a sudden,” Mr. Apgar said.

“It’s great, I enjoyed it immensely,” he added.

For other audience members, like Roy Lacura, who is the parish business manager for a Catholic church in Buffalo, the backdrops were a way of helping tell the story of each dance.

“The backdrop was very interesting. I love the computer animation and it made you feel more like you knew the story a little bit,” he said. As a devout Christian, Mr. Lacura was especially intrigued by the scenes of the holy deities and the appearance of Buddhas on the backdrops.

“There was one piece that was so reminiscent of … the holy spirit in my religion and I thought, you know as different as they seem, they are very, very similar in a lot of ways and even with this deity,” he said.

Mr. Lacura’s sister, Linda, who was also impressed with the show, promised to return next year when Shen Yun returns. “The costumes, the music was really fabulous … Yep, it was all perfect,” she said.

Dave Klein attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Shea’s Performing Arts Center in downtown Buffalo. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

Also captured by the timeliness of the backdrops and the dancers was a space hydraulics technician, Dave Klein, who couldn’t help notice the athleticism of the performers that blended with the backdrops.

“It was very precise,” he said. “It was great … It was different,” he said. The most impressive for Mr. Klein was how the performers, the music and the backdrops complemented each other.

“I liked the background and the scenery, and the way they combined it with the animation,” he said.

With reporting by Allen Zhou, Kristina Skorbach and Matthew Little.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Mr. Carbaugh and his sons John (L) and Max at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance held at Shea's Performing Arts Center on May 11. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at Shea’s Performing Arts Center on Friday, May 11, presenting the grandeur of classical Chinese dance and music to a full house.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was established in 2006 with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture.

Mr. Brad Carbaugh, a sales executive with a multinational computer information technology company, came to the performance with his sons, John and Max.

“It’s been a really nice experience,” Mr. Carbaugh said.

“It’s something we don’t see everyday, so I brought both my boys, John and Max, down to have them take a look at some different cultures that they may not be exposed to,” he added.

John said he really enjoyed the show, pointing out that he was particularly intrigued by the piece How the Monkey King Came to Be. This scene tells the story of the popular character the Monkey King in China’s classic novel Journey to the West.

Dr. Paul Holmwood enjoyed the classical Chinese dance presented by Shen Yun Performing Arts. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

Also coming to see the show was ophthalmologist Dr. Paul Holmwood, who admired the classical Chinese dance presented by Shen Yun.

“It was good, very good,” he said.

Classical Chinese dance is simultaneously complex, graceful, and highly expressive, and according to the company, it is one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world.

Dr. Holmwood said he has seen some shows in China during his travels there. He noted, however, that what distinguished Shen Yun from those other shows is the history and culture that are an integral part of a Shen Yun performance.

“They [the other shows] were more geared towards gymnastics and wowing the crowd with amazing human skills, as opposed to [Shen Yun’s] artistic flair and mythology and history and everything else,” Dr. Holmwood said.

Reporting by Matthew Little.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Barbara Nuchereno and her daughter, Rachel, attend Shen Yun Performing Arts in Buffalo. Ms. Nuchereno said, "I was excited to be able to come this year." (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Amherst town councilmember Barbara Nuchereno had wanted to see Shen Yun Performing Arts when it came through Buffalo last year, but missed the chance.

This year she made sure to come and brought her daughter with her to experience classical Chinese dance and music at Buffalo’s beautifully restored Shea’s Performing Arts Center on May 11.

Just north of Buffalo, Amherst is home to 120,000 people, big enough to be a city but content to be a town joked Ms. Nuchereno. She came that day with a proclamation to present to Shen Yun, signed by herself and five other councilmembers, thanking New York-based Shen Yun for its contribution to preserving Chinese culture.

“This is a proclamation from the town of Amherst, thanking the company for all that they’ve done to bring this rich culture to our part of the world,” Ms. Nuchereno said.

Shen Yun left her with warm words for the presentation that night.

“I thought it was fabulous. I wasn’t able to come last year, and I was excited to be able to come this year. My daughter came with me and it was just different from anything I’ve seen before. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but visually it was very stimulating. And historically, it was very interesting, and thought-provoking,” she said.

“It gave you a lot to think about and a lot to see. You could just sit and enjoy yourself or you could think about things, and it really was sort of a way to travel to China without having to travel to China,” she added.

“The dancing was precise and artful,” she said, adding her praise for the flips and jumps that comprise the more technical elements of classical Chinese dance.

“It was fabulous!” she said.

The incredible digital background was just amazing, and it was awe-inspiring.

“Aside from the beautiful costumes, and the precise and artful dancing, and the beautiful singing, the incredible digital background was just amazing, and it was awe-inspiring.”

“But what I liked the most was also the thought-provoking serious side that reminds all of us that we live in this great country where we have freedom and not everybody does. And we can never forget that, and we can never forget to help people when we can,” she said.

Ms. Nuchereno said she appreciated the three dances that were set in modern China representing the current crackdown on the Falun Gong meditation practice. She said she appreciated the reminders about what it means to have freedom of belief, something that can easily be taken for granted.

“The reminder about freedom, and the lack of it really stayed with me,” she said.

Besides the visual beauty of what was presented on stage, Ms. Nuchereno said she was struck with the themes of the performance.

“The good versus evil was interesting, and the parts of the culture that stress honour and perseverance, and those qualities that we all try to emulate and try to achieve in our own lives was in the show all around, and that was nice,” she said.

“The meaning of all of it was inspiring so it brought together not just the culture but the values of the culture, the goodness, the evil, everything that it taught us about the culture and the history and the religion was just wonderful.”

She said she was intrigued by Shen Yun’s digital backdrops and how the scenes interacted with the dancers on the stage.

“They digitally had the people flying in and then coming out—that was really interesting. It also gave us a piece of China because it had the farmland, it had the mountains, it had the towns. So we were able to see some of the country through the background, which I thought was terrific.”

“The digital background was quite impressive,” she said.

Particularly notable for Ms. Nuchereno was Snowflakes Welcoming Spring, in which dancers take small quick steps while they spin and twirl sequined handkerchiefs as snowflakes gather for a final farewell.

“It was pretty,” said Ms. Nuchereno.

The Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra made an impression as well. After noting earlier the great acoustics in the Shea’s Performing Arts Center, Ms. Nuchereno shared her thoughts on the music performed that evening.

“They were top notch … top notch,” she said.

Her teen daughter Rachel enjoyed the show as well.

“I thought it was amazing. It was really great. The dancing was awesome,” added Rachel Nuchereno.

Rachel said she was particularly taken with the dance Sleeves of Silk, in which classical Chinese dancers use “water sleeves” made of flowing lengths of silk. These trails of fabric linger in the air like a visual echo of each movement.

Ms. Nuchereno said Buffalo and its surrounding areas like Amherst were fortunate to have Shen Yun come and share the history and culture of traditional China.

“On behalf of the town of Amherst we appreciate the opportunity for Western New York to share in this experience,” she said.

“I would certainly hope it does come back every year.”

With reporting by NTD Television

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Soben Pim attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia on May 9.

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at the Merriam Theatre on May 9, showing one of the most ancient cultures in the world to a full house.

Shen Yun, based in New York, criss-crosses the globe, “with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture,” according to its website. Communist rule in China “all but completely demolished” this ancient culture.

Soben Pim, publisher for overseas Cambodian news outlet The Khmer Post USA, saw Shen Yun for the third year running on Wednesday evening.

“I felt like I revisited the past of 5,000 years of the Chinese civilization,” she said. “They put it well, very well. I really like it.”

Shen Yun’s trademark handcrafted, brilliantly-colored costumes caught Ms. Pim’s attention.

“I loved the costumes,” she said.

Classical Chinese dance, the core of a Shen Yun performance, “is a culture left to us by the ancients who came before us, its beauty should be riches shared by all of humanity, its purity should not be contaminated,” states the website. “Shen Yun Performing Arts’ dance style is built upon classical Chinese dance as a foundation, while also maintaining a number of ethnic and folk dances. This combination embodies Chinese people’s estheticism and ethnic character.”

Ms. Pim enjoyed the dancers’ expression of art, as well as “how they are able to convey the emotion through the dance. The girls’ hands at some points look like flowers, and at another point looked like grass blowing in the wind,” she said. “It was pretty nice, I like it.”

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Bank of America branch in Washington. Before the 2008 economic meltdown, the five largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., accounted for about 43 percent of the U.S. GDP, while today they account for 56 percent of the U.S. GDP.(Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

It has been more than three years since the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) formed in an effort to overcome the 2008 economic upheaval.

Much has been said for and against possible losses to the American taxpayer by a number of government entities, financial and economics experts, as well as academics.

The too big to fail banks are now much bigger and much more powerful than ever.

-- Michael T. Snyder, The Economic Collapse website.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), the entity most knowledgeable about gains and losses, seems to be certain that there will be only losses and no gains.

“It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit. The most recent cost estimate for TARP is a loss of $60 billion,” according to the SIGTARP Quarterly Report to Congress, released at the end of April.

The president’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget proposal suggests that the TARP program will cost the American taxpayer about $68 billion, which is $273 billion less than the estimated cost of $341 billion at the beginning of the program in 2008.

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the taxpayer subsidy of the TARP program would amount to $32 billion.

According to the CBO, the cost estimate decreased by $2 billion since December 2011, which is attributed to the increase in market value of the American International Group (AIG) and General Motors Co.

Actually, it is less known that AIG, the automotive industry, and housing foreclosure programs account for most of the cost to the taxpayer.

“Other transactions with financial institutions will, taken together, yield a net gain to the federal government,” according to the CBO March report.

Bank Bailout Causes Moral Hazard

The SIGTARP Quarterly Report recommends that “the analysis should not be focused alone on money in and money out. TARP’s costs and legacies involve far more than just dollars and cents.”

One should ask if those responsible for the financial crisis and those who were too lax in their oversight responsibilities have learned their lesson, or will another fiasco creep up unexpectedly and be even more costly to the U.S. government.

“A significant legacy of TARP is increased moral hazard and potentially disastrous consequences associated with institutions deemed ‘too big to fail,’” the SIGTARP report said.

The government response avoided the total failure of the financial and automotive industries, but instead of repaying taxpayer generosity and helping the public avert foreclosure and bankruptcy, the banks used the TARP funds to grow larger.

“The too big to fail banks are now much bigger and much more powerful than ever,” according to an article on The Economic Collapse website by lawyer Michael T. Snyder.

Snyder suggests that before the 2008 economic meltdown, the five largest U.S. banks accounted for about 43 percent of the U.S. GDP, while today they account for 56 percent of the U.S. GDP.

Today, there are less than 6,300 banks in the U.S., while there were about 13,000 banks around 30 years ago, according to an article on the Profit Confidential website.

“TARP encouraged high-risk behavior by insulating the risk takers from the consequences of failure—which is known as moral hazard. … The large banks that received Government bailouts through TARP are now taking more risks than banks that did not receive taxpayer money,” suggested a recent Federal Reserve working paper, according to the SIGTARP Quarterly report.

TARP’s Latest Update

“By CBO’s estimate, $431 billion of the initially authorized $700 billion will be disbursed through the TARP,” states the March CBO report on TARP.

According to the May 2 daily TARP update by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the government agreed to pay out $470 billion from taxpayer funds, of which $415 billion was distributed under the 13 TARP programs. More than half of the funds paid out, $297 billion, were paid back.

More than $4 billion of the funds were forgiven of which $2.58 billion came from banks that closed their doors; the remainder came from funds paid to Chrysler Group LLC under the Automotive Industry Financing Program. Almost $10 billion was lost when shares owned by the government were sold in the market, leaving a total of $100.25 billion still to be repaid.

Taxpayers earned a total of $40.88 billion of which $19 billion came from dividends and $2 billion were from interest payments, while the remainder were various other payments.

The present administration believes that taxpayers should be compensated for their willingness to bail out financial institutions and suggests that a combined $61 billion fee should be assessed to the largest banks.

“The President’s Budget proposes a $61 billion Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be imposed on the largest financial firms in order to compensate the American people for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street, as well as to discourage excessive risk-taking,” according to the FY 2013 Budget proposal.

SIGTARP Warnings Ignored

“The U.S. government pledged that the country would never be held hostage by the big banks again in the future. To assure this, the U.S. government was going to institute new regulations to control the big banks,” said Michael Lombardi, investment guru, on the Profit Confidential website.

Lombardi continued to state that the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., didn’t shrink to a more manageable size, but instead became larger and more unwieldy.

The concern is that big banks are once again dealing in risky types of arrangements, that is, mortgage-backed securities, which are bundled into derivatives and have not been regulated.

According to Lombardi, “The five big banks own 96% of the total amount of derivatives issued in the U.S., or $221.76 trillion in derivatives.”

Loans to the five largest banks from the Federal Reserve were invested in commodities, mainly food products, instead of used for lending activities.

“Big Wall Street banks have made huge amounts of money speculating on the price of food. This has caused food prices all over the globe to soar and it has caused tremendous hardship for hundreds of millions of families around the planet,” accused Snyder in his article on The Economic Collapse website.

A recent poll of the American public by the American Banker suggests that 57 percent of all Americans don’t believe that Ben Bernanke, present chairman of the central bank of the United States, is powerful enough to let the largest U.S. banks fail during another bank crisis and that the matter has become more political than ever.

“Rather than curbing the power and risk of the ‘Too-Big-To-Fail’ banks, the federal financial regulators have facilitated their becoming even bigger. … They have escaped responsibility for their part in the global financial crisis. They continue to show disregard for regulations,” said a respondent to the American Banker poll.

“The too big to fail banks have complete domination over derivatives trading. … Our financial system is more vulnerable than it ever has been before. … When the derivatives market fully implodes, there will not be enough money in the world to bail everyone out,” Snyder warned.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Michael Hagy and Mary Hagy attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theatre. (Pamela Tsai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—When Shen Yun Performing Arts performed on Wednesday evening May 9, the audience expressed delight, both through rousing applause and comments afterward.

“I have a true love of artistry, and the classical dance, and the incredible athleticism here tonight is just gorgeous,” said playwright Mary Hagy.

Shen Yun is dedicated to the revival of traditional Chinese culture which was all but destroyed after more than 60 years of Communist rule in China and the Cultural Revolution, Shen Yun’s website explains. “However, the deeper spiritual core of the ancient culture, with its values of benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens, cannot be destroyed,”it says.

Founded in 2006, Shen Yun has grown to three performance troupes and orchestras of comparable size. Today Shen Yun counts many winners of international dance and vocal competitions among its artists, and the orchestras include many musicians from world-renowned symphonies and conservatories.”

Michael Hagy who accompanied his wife to the performance at the Merriam Theatre, pointed to the many aspects from which to appreciate Shen Yun.

“The colors, the artistry, the athleticism, it’s just wonderful to watch,” he said.

Mr. Hagy’s broad expertise includes business team development, executive coaching and strategic planning. He speaks to organizations and businesses at such places as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S Congress. He also teaches at both Temple University and Philadelphia University.

Shen Yun was something apart from everything he had experienced. “I think it’s once in a life-time,”he said, adding “You’ve got to go to it once,” he added. “You have to go to it.”

Shen Yun’s performance takes the audience both through time and space—across the vast land of China, and from the dawn of the civilization 5,000 years ago to the modern day.

Ms. Hagy found the stories a “doorway into Chinese heritage in a way that we’ve never seen before.”

In the modern day, communist rule in China limits freedom of speech and belief—particularly that of Falun Dafa practitioners, a practice “guided by the principles of ‘truthfulness compassion, and tolerance,” according to Shen Yun’s website. The practice “helped over a hundred million Chinese people understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture—Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist schools of thought,” adds the website.

“And yet, the Chinese Communist Party, whose regime and ideology are in stark contrast with the traditional culture of China, has targeted Falun Gong for persecution.” Falun Dafa practitioners holding firm to their faith, with a spirit of compassion and tolerance, “manifest the very essence of China’s 5,000-year-old divine culture,” the website explains.

The “common human element” of the modern day tales struck Ms. Hagy.

“Whenever there’s oppression, and there are people that are seeking to be free, there’s always a conflict,” she said. “And when there’s a conflict, there’s a story, and wherever there’s a story that’s resolved, there’s a communication between heritage and cultures—that one doesn’t need words, it can be told in dance.”

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Irwin and Naomi Moldovsky attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Naomi Moldovsky a teacher and her husband Irwin, a former businessman, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia Wednesday night and were very pleased.

“I just love it. The precision and the music: I just love everything,” Mrs. Moldovsky said.

Mrs. Moldovsky saw Shen Yun in New York earlier in the year and enjoyed it so much she wanted her husband to see it.

Mr. Modlovsky said they were both really enjoying the performance and commented on the depth of Chinese culture.

“Well it’s the oldest around, 5,000 years right? I’m Jewish: we’re only around for 3,000. They’re the big guys,” he said.

Shen Yun is dedicated to restoring Chinese culture and through scenes of vibrant dancing, music and singing, brings China to life from its ancient past right through to modern-day China.

“A performance by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” the Shen Yun website says.

Mrs. Moldovky had bought box seats at the Merriam Theater which gave the couple an excellent view, not only of the stage, but also into the orchestra pit.

“Wonderful orchestra,” Mr. Molodvsky said, “The conductor stays right in touch with the moment on the stage, and from the screen to the stage.”

“I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the Monkey King a lot,” he added, noting particularly the popular Chinese story of the Monkey King and Journey to the West.

Mrs. Moldovsky said she was enjoying Shen Yun even more after seeing it for a second time. “[It’s] worth the time and money,” she said, “it’s worthwhile to see, absolutely.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Sonja Bates (R) with friends at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theater. (Sherry Dong /The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts drew a sold out audience to the Merriam Theater on May 9, pleasing the audience with its rich cultural revival and sensory delight.

“What I like is there’s an appreciation for life,” said former designer Sonja Bates. “Of every aspect of the dance, it speaks about life and the simplicity of it. They capture life in a pure form of expression without complicating it.”

At the core of a Shen Yun performance is classical Chinese dance, one of the most ancient and comprehensive dance systems in the world, according to the company’s website. Shen Yun’s artists “bring an unusual depth to their work,” explains its program book. “They take to heart an ancient Chinese belief: that to create true art, there must first be inner beauty.”

Coming from a family of artists, Ms. Bates enjoys culture, music, dance and art. Her mother is a dancer.

“I believe that cultures are best when they share their diversity, and it improves art,” she said. “And it’s wonderful to know where it comes from. I feel connected.”

“Sophisticated dance techniques, an orchestra joining instruments East and West, beautiful costumes, and a stunning back drop—this is Shen Yun at first glance,” states Shen Yun’s website.“But digging deeper, one discovers a sea of traditional Chinese culture. Mortals and divine beings merge on stage as one. Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience. Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture.”

Shen Yun was formed after communist rule in China nearly decimated this ancient and rich culture, explains the website. Its three equally large companies travel across the world “with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture.”

Ms. Bates felt Shen Yun’s artistry was superb.

“It’s pure,” she said. “It’s humanity at it’s best, when everybody is in a balance of acting in unison together.”

She particularly enjoyed the dances Lotus Leaves and Sleeves of Silk. The first depicts delicate yet playful lotus maidens with full-circle fans, and the second features what are known as “water sleeves,” which act as extensions of a dancer’s arms. “These sleeves linger in the air long after a movement is finished,” describes Shen Yun’s program. “The effect is akin to fluttering wings or trailing ripples, a visual echo of the performer as she glides from one movement to the next.”

While these two dances are all-female, Ms. Bates also enthused about the male dancers.

“The men were very dynamic with their aerodynamic theme high on the stage, and they bring in great balance of humor too,” she said. “It’s beautiful, I love it, I really do.”

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Ana Gamboa and Arturo Varela share their Shen Yun experiences at at the Merriam Theatre on May 9. (Hannah Cai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts drew a full-house at the Merriam Theatre on May 9.

Arturo Varela, a senior reporter with leading Hispanic weekly AIDia NewsMedia, attended and was delighted.

“I don’t even know where to begin, there are so many things going on,” he said. “It is really impressive.”

Classical Chinese dance is at the core of a Shen Yun performance.

“Dance is one part of human culture,” states the website of the New York-based company. “Classical Chinese dance is grounded in 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture, and is a dance art form built upon a deep foundation of traditional aesthetics.”

“I was really surprised to see how the dancers, both the female and male dancers, are so strong in their movements, and at the same time so delicate in their own way,” said Mr. Varela.

The dance Sleeves of Silk—which features long, lingering “sleeves of silk,” according to Shen Yun’s program book— entranced the senior reporter. “They are almost hypnotic by the way they float,” he said.

The dancers—adorned with colorful, handcrafted costumes—are accompanied by digital backdrops, award-winning vocalists, and an orchestra that melds classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments, according to its website.

“A performance by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” explains the website.

Mr. Varela saw “a great balance” in the performance, adding that each dance “is so different from the next one.”

“It really feels like a condensed or intensive appreciation of Chinese culture,” he said. “It is an amazing show and I would recommend it to anybody.”

Ana Gamboa, a reporter and blogger for AIDia NewsMedia, accompanied Mr. Varela to the performance.

“It is a very beautiful experience and it is a show that everybody can enjoy no matter where they are from,” she said.

Shen Yun presents a “good opportunity to get to know the Chinese culture and its “roots and origins … and how spiritual they are,” Ms. Gamboa said. “The art is beautiful.”

Reporting by Hannah Cai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Kay Krekow and Harry Dunstan attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia on May 9. (The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts was a display of consummate balance to soprano Kay Krekow and Dr. Harry Dunstan, tenor and founder of the American Center for Puccini Studies.

The two attended the performance at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre on May 9.

“They may not realize this, but, something in everybody who was in this building tonight changed because of what they heard and what they saw,” Ms. Krekow said.

Mr. Dunstan, who has toured with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the nation, recognized the musical arrangement in Shen Yun as a culmination of the histories of the East and West.

“The musical language finally evolves to what we could hear tonight, where there’s a happy confluence of East and West,” he said. “And the Eastern thought, which was so far ahead of its time, now has a happy partner in Western music.”

Classical Chinese dance, an ancient and comprehensive dance system, forms the core of a Shen Yun performance. Along with colorful, handcrafted costumes, digital backdrops, and award-winning vocalists, a unique orchestra accentuates the dancers.

“A Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, while traditional Chinese instruments lead the melodies,” states Shen Yun’s website. “The sound produced is uniquely pleasing to the ear. The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization.”

“It’s beautiful,” said Ms. Krekow. “It’s fascinating. And it’s the perfect use and balance of all of the instruments because they all complement each other.”

Shen Yun’s tenors and sopranos may have impressed the two even more.

Mr. Dunstan was so touched by the singing that he started crying at the first song, “and it didn’t stop.”

“There were so many times that I was sitting there thinking, ‘I am not alone,’” he said.

The singing and the text I can understand and it’s the immediacy of understanding the beauty of this thought that life is ephemeral and there is so much danger around us, but you have to move forward.

“For me as a singer, I live so much with words. The dancing is very moving too, and some of it is beyond what I can understand technically,” he explained. “The singing and the text I can understand and it’s the immediacy of understanding the beauty of this thought that life is ephemeral and there is so much danger around us, but you have to move forward.”

Shen Yun’s vocal soloists use the bel canto vocal technique while singing Chinese lyrics, requiring an unparalleled level of mastery, explains Shen Yun’s website.

“The lyrics are all original compositions,” it adds. “Brimming with philosophical reflection about human life and deep layers of meaning, they traverse the boundaries of nation, race, and culture and have been fondly received and appreciated the world over. Some audience members even call Shen Yun’s songs ‘hymns.’”

“The text, first of all, is so beautiful,” said Mr. Dunstan. “They [the audience] understand it at its emotional core, and that’s what music speaks to immediately.”

“What we’re hearing here with these songs, we have to understand the temporality of this existence, yet the permanence of this existence—that we’re all creatures of transition. And I think something like tonight’s performance helps us understand the regenerative nature of the eternity of the soul and rejoice in this corporeal existence.”

Ms. Krekow agreed. “I think what’s so wonderful about this particular show and the intentions behind it is that this represents a confluence of all those thoughts that it is accessible on a poetic level, on a visual level, on an auditory level, and it combines all of those things to access us not only on a human level, but on a spiritual level as well—it’s the perfect confluence of things.”

Mr. Dunstan said he has much hope for the future because of groups such as Shen Yun.

“Because they are unafraid to put their hearts on their sleeve and say ‘art should stand for something,’” he said.

After more than 60 years of communist rule in China nearly decimated traditional Chinese culture, New York-based Shen Yun began touring the world to “revive the 5,000 year old, divinely inspired culture of China,” according to its website. The three faiths of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, imbued the culture with “a rich and profound system of values,” such as “the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness.”

The ancient culture surpassed many of the advancements considered modern today. “Eras like the Han, Song, and Tang Dynasties are replete with brilliant doctors, poets, and generals who devised medicines, prose, and military tactics that would leave many of today’s experts in awe,” states the website. The artists of Shen Yun, says Shen Yun’s program book, “take to heart an ancient Chinese belief: that to create true art, there must first be inner beauty.”

Shen Yun translates into English as ‘the beauty of divine beings dancing.’

The faces of so many of the dancers were just divinely inspired. They were elsewhere, and yet they were communicating with us.

—Kay Krekow

“It’s a perfect description,” said Ms. Krekow. “The faces of so many of the dancers were just divinely inspired. They were elsewhere, and yet they were communicating with us. They were otherworldly, and yet they were here.”

Ms. Krewkow left the performance with enlightening realizations.

“The world now has to listen because it has support, not only from an audience, but from the performers, who are obviously unafraid and brave and committed and excited and happy—because they’re able to do this,” she said.

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Roy Schmidt and his wife, Kirsten Olson, attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre, on May 9. (Pamela Tsai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre on May 9 to a full house.

“I love the music with the integration of the instruments from China,” said Kirsten Olsen, conductor of multiple children’s choirs, private teacher of piano, organ, and voice, and giver of a variety of musical lectures and workshops on the East Coast.

“The mixture of the instruments is really unique,” said Mrs. Olsen. “And the way they feature the certain instruments is really interesting.”

Chinese instruments lead the melodies in Shen Yun’s orchestra, while a Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, explains the company’s website. Ancient Chinese instruments with origins thousands of years ago in Shen Yun’s orchestra include the expressive pipa, or Chinese lute, the suona, or double reed woodwind instrument, and the erhu, or two-stringed Chinese violin.

“The erhu is incredibly expressive, capable of imitating sounds from chirping birds to neighing horses,” explains Shen Yun’s website. “An alto instrument with a middle-high musical range, its melodies can be tender or sonorous. In its lowest and middle range, the erhu is especially stirring and somber, a quality especially suitable for conveying the grand pageant of China’s history and the emotions of its people.”

Ms. Olsen appreciated seeing the high level of traditional dance seen in Shen Yun, and the way it harmonized with the live music.

“The choreography mixed with the music,” she said, “is just very well melded together.”

“It is fabulous,” said Roy Schmidt, a choir singer and Mrs. Olsen’s husband. “This is wonderful.”

The last dance of the first half, a Tibetan ethnic dance, enthralled Mr. Schmidt. “Life is harsh in the Himalayas, but the Tibetan seem to embrace it,” states Shen Yun’s program book. “The dancers in this piece step and stomp, spin and soar with joyful, vibrant energy. In their hands they hold the Khata, a traditional scarf presented to guests. Here they offer it to the gods as a sign of reverence and devotion.”

“I was excited to see the Tibetan dance,” he said, adding that he was recently part of the premiere of a piece of music from the Mendelssohn club that had Tibetan themes.

“The leader of the Philadelphia Tibetan Society was there, and presented the conductor with a khata,” explained Mr. Schmidt. “So I immediately recognized that. I just thought that was fabulous.”

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

A protestor stands in front of the condominium development project that the Musqueam Nation says will destroy an ancient village and burial site. (Courtesy Musqueam Band)

A B.C. First Nation is trying to preserve an ancient village and burial site that were part of what was once one of the largest pre-contact middens on Canada’s Pacific coast.

The Musqueam Nation and supporters have been protesting around the clock at the site of a large condominium development underway at the Marpole Midden, an ancient village site located at the southern tip of Vancouver.

The Musqueam say the 4,000-year-old midden represents a profound and rare link to their history, and is a sacred place of rest for their ancestors that should not be disturbed.

“It’s one of the last—if not the last—connection the Musqueam people have to their ancestors,” says Wade Grant, a council member with the Musqueam band.

“It’s important to the Musqueam now because the city of Vancouver has grown up so rapidly around us, there are no other real sites that actually connect us to who we are.”

The remains of an adult and two infants were unearthed at the site earlier this year, and the Musqueam say this provides further proof that the area is a rich historical treasure trove that needs to be protected.

Many tools, artifacts, and weapons were found in the area when it was first developed, which led to its designation as a Canadian Heritage site in 1933. It is recognized as one of the largest ancient village sites in North America.

Work is currently on hold at the site, located on the 1300 block of S.W. Marine Drive. Grant says band members will continue to protest at the site until a resolution is reached that protects the area from further development.

“Community members have said they’re planning to stay here until a resolution is found that ensures the archeological remains remain intact and are not removed,” he says.

“They are taking a stand and they are very upset right now.”

Alternative Offer

The Musqueam have offered to swap the condo development land, which belongs to a private owner, for a parcel of their own land, while covering some of the costs.

Grant says both the City of Vancouver and the developer, Century Holdings Ltd., have been willing to negotiate with the band and seem open to the land-swap, but provincial approval is needed.

“The Provincial Government hasn’t had much communication with the Musqueam people,” he says.

“We’ve never heard directly from the premier. We have heard from the minister in charge, who says that the province has no role in this issue, which we disagree with.”

Brennan Clarke, public affairs officer for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, says the government is working with the city and the Musqueam to find a solution.

“The site where the remains were found will not be disturbed until an archaeologist has completed intensive testing the vicinity to determine if there are additional remains in the area,” he wrote in an email, adding the province recently hired a consultant to work with the parties in finding a resolution.

Clarke also said the area has already been “heavily disturbed” and developed over the years, and that the province had issued permits to develop only a portion of the site.

He noted that by 1955, urban expansion had significantly altered the landscape of the Marpole Midden. The site was settled in the 1880s and has been redeveloped several times.

However, the portion slated for the proposed condo development remained undisturbed, according to an open letter from the Musqueam to Premier Christy Clark and Mayor Gregor Robertson.

City Supports Protection

City of Vancouver spokesperson Mairi Welman says that while burial sites and archeological sites fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, the city supports protecting the site.

“We support the rights of the Musqueam Nation to protect and respect a historical site,” she says. “It is our hope that the province takes a more assertive role in resolving this issue.”

The Musqueam are proposing building a park and memorial in the area of the site, in partnership with the province and city.

“Instead of a jumbled collection of rundown buildings and car lots, visitors would be greeted by a vision of an interpretative park … that would celebrate the Musqueam/Coast Salish heritage on whose land all of Metro Vancouver and surrounding cities are built,” the open letter says.

“The province has really made strides in the last decade to create a new relationship with First Nations based on mutual respect and recognition,” he says.

“However, we felt that respect should also be passed on not only to us living today but to those who have come before us. … This is Canadian history and B.C. history that needs to be preserved and protected as we move forward.”

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Bob Dichico, Kathy and John Woods (R) attend Shen Yun Performing Arts in Philadelphia. (Hannah Cai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—“It’s a wonderful show. It was my first time to see this but it won’t be my last.” These were the first words from retired photographer, John Woods, after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on May 9.

New York-based Shen Yun often elicits high praise from a broad range of fields in society. The company was formed after more than 60 years of communist rule, which nearly decimated traditional culture in China. It was established with the mission “of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture,” according to its website. Dancers proficient in classical Chinese dance and adorned with colorful- handcrafted costumes, perform accompanied by digital backdrops and a unique orchestra that melds classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments.

“This will be the first of many,” Mr. Woods said. “I’m very glad the shows are new each year … it’s terrific.”

“The colors, the precision was incredible,” he added. “We are all also photographers, so for me seeing those incredible backdrops was just amazing. I really enjoyed it.

Classical Chinese dance involves a broad range of movements, postures, and difficult tumbling and jumping techniques, according to Shen Yun’s website. “And so, alongside ballet, classical Chinese dance is one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world.”

Mr. Woods expressed awe at the high level of dancing.

“There were so many different moves—some that I had never seen before. It was very complex … and sophisticated.”

Different stories and legends from the rich culture are brought to life on stage. Mr. Woods especially enjoyed How the Monkey King Came to Be, a dance that shows the birth and first adventure of “the central character in China’s classic novel Journey to the West,” according to Shen Yun’s program. The Monkey King creates trouble but ultimately becomes a guard for a monk on a sacred journey.

“I liked that someone who didn’t start in the best of circumstances, and who may have been a problem once in his life, transformed and became such a force for good,” Mr. Woods said, adding that he found all “the stories were enchanting.”

Shen Yun’s orchestra “seamlessly blend[s]” the seemingly “disparate sounds of East and West,” states the company’s website. Violins, trumpets, and other instruments form the foundation—a Western philharmonic orchestra—while traditional Chinese instruments—such as the dizi, or bamboo flute—lead the melodies.

“I loved the mixture of the eastern instruments and the western instruments together,” said Mr. Woods. “It was very good.”

The overall theme of an underlying battle between good and evil, shown from the dawn of civilization up to the present, resonated with Mr. Woods.

“There’s not this black and white kind of dichotomy that there is in Western thinking about good and evil,” he said. “It is just part of the fabric of life. And it is to be transcended.”

“It seems to me that there’s a very noticeable difference between Western notions of good and evil and what I saw in the performance tonight,” he said. “And that is that evil is part of living, and the issue is how to rise above—how to transcend the evil.

“But there’s not this black and white kind of dichotomy that there is in Western thinking about good and evil. It is just part of the fabric of life, and it is to be transcended,” he added. “I just thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Reporting by Hannah Cai and Zachary Stieber

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Attorneys Brad and Chris Bak were among the delighted audience at Shen Yun Performing Arts in Philadelphia. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—An enthusiastic audience came out on a wet Wednesday night to see Shen Yun Performing Arts on its last night in Philadelphia this season.

They clapped and cheered, standing to applaud after the performance at the Merriam Theater.

Attorneys Brad and Chris Bak were among the delighted audience.

Mrs. Bak who, along with her husband and children had visited China, said Shen Yun was a new experience, particularly with the inclusion of several contemporary scenes.

“I found that very fascinating,” she said. “This is something different.”

Mr. Bak said he found Shen Yun “intriguing.”

“Shen Yun presents colorful and exhilarating performances of classical Chinese dance and music. A performance by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” the Shen Yun website states. The company formed to revive the divinely-inspired, 5,000-year old Chinese culture after more than 60 years of communist rule nearly decimated it.

Dance—classical Chinese dance, and ethnic and folk dance—is at the core of a Shen Yun performance. Mrs. Bak enjoyed this aspect of the performance.

“The monk piece is adorable,” she said adding, “I also liked the long-sleeved piece. It was just beautiful.”

Joyful Little Monks, the first dance she referenced, depicts apprentice monks tidying up the temple with brooms and washbasin. “Eager to do well, they put their hearts into their work—with fun and humorous results,” according to Shen Yun’s program.

Sleeves of Silk, the second dance Mrs. Bak referenced, “uses what are known as ‘water sleeves’ for some of its loveliest expressions,” explains the program. “Acting as extensions of a dancer’s arms, these sleeves linger in the air long after a movement is finished. The effect is akin to fluttering wings or trailing ripples, a visual echo of the performer as she glides from one movement to the next. On earth, water sleeves accompany the most graceful of dancers; in heaven, the lightest, most airborne fairy.”

Mrs. Bak thought Shen Yun was “a lot of fun,” yet also an effective way to connect with the culture.

“I think it’s a lovely way to get authentic Chinese culture, and some of their storytelling,” she said. “It’s a good way to get a sense of their culture.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Philadelphia's Merriam Theater. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Philadelphia has a long tradition of the arts. So it was no surprise that the audience reacted with enthusiasm and appreciation when they saw Shen Yun Performing Arts grace the stage at a packed Merriam Theater on May 9.

Chemist Claudia Lieberman, flush with excitement at the end of the show, was among those in attendance.

“Oh it was an amazing show,” she said. “Beautiful colors, beautiful movements, beautiful music—absolutely stunning. I loved it.”

Ms. Lieberman enjoyed the cultural features of Shen Yun, saying Chinese culture was amazing.

“The whole history is unbelievable,” she said. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”

Shen Yun began in 2006 in New York with a small group of overseas Chinese artists living in America, according to its website. Dedicated to restoring traditional Chinese culture, the group came together to fulfill their mission through the performing arts. Today Shen Yun has three full touring companies, each with a full dance troupe, award-winning classical singers, and virtuoso musicians making up full orchestras.

“A performance by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” the Shen Yun website says.

Ms. Lieberman is originally from Romania and noted the contemporary scenes in Shen Yun which depict the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China today. According to Shen Yun’s website, “Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is guided by the principles of ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.’ It has helped over a hundred million Chinese people understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture—Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist schools of thought.”

Yet, the website adds, the Chinese Communist Party has attempted to eradicate the group, with Falun Gong practitioners “spirit of compassion and tolerance” while holding firm to their beliefs “manifest the very essence of China’s 5,000-year-old divine culture.”

Ms. Lieberman could relate to those pieces and the depiction of police brutality, as Romania was under communist repression when she lived there.

“It’s very interesting that you cannot see this show in China, but you can see it here,” she said.

Ms. Lieberman said she would tell her friends about Shen Yun, and “to come over and see the show.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Juli LaRosa attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—The spirituality of China was displayed in full at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Wednesday night as Shen Yun Performing Arts performed for the second time.

Juli LaRosa, a professor of business at Philadelphia-based Drexel University, noted the spirituality that exuded from the performance.

She said she found Shen Yun to show the “deeply spiritual nature” of Chinese culture.

Shen Yun seeks to revive traditional Chinese culture through performing arts and music, namely using classical Chinese dance to express the inner meanings of it. According to the company, much of China’s traditional culture was destroyed under six decades of communist rule, particularly during the Cultural Revolution.

“The dancers care about what it is that they’re doing” and “carry themselves with quite a good posture,” said Mrs. LaRosa.

Classical Chinese dance is considered one of the most comprehensive styles in the world, having been passed down for thousands of years, according to the company. It was mainly confined to China’s imperial court, but later became systematized and has its own postures, movements, and tumbling techniques.

She also found the costumes to have a “flow” to them and “catches you off guard. Because we don’t have that so much in [Western] ballet… the flow.”

The company says it painstakingly collects numerous designs of Chinese traditional attire, ranging from generals, ministers, emperors, to the styles worn by common people. The costumes are displayed in a multitude of “brilliant colors,” the website says.

Overall, Shen Yun “was lovely and elegant” and said she had little idea that traditional Chinese culture—which throughout history, has been influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism—had such a strong spirituality to it.

The show was not only “beautiful,” Mrs. LaRosa said, but some of the stories, which are drawn from Chinese history, were “light-hearted, as well.”

Reporting by Lillian Chang and Jack Phillips.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Nadine Novak, (L) a designer, and Barbara Friedman, a photographer, enjoyed Shen Yun in Philadelphia, May 9. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts left the audience at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre on May enthusiastic after the evening performance.

“The talent is incredible from beginning to end,” said photographer Barbara Friedman. “I’ve never seen the show, but it took my breath away, totally took my breath away!”

New York-based Shen Yun traverses the globe on a mission—”to revive the 5,000 year old, divinely inspired culture of China,” according to the company’s website, as well as “the deeper spiritual core of the ancient culture, with its values of benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens.”

Dancers trained in one of the most comprehensive dance systems in existence—classical Chinese dance—are adorned with vividly-colored handmade costumes, and accompanied by digital backdrops, award-winning vocalists, and an orchestra that deftly joins classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments, explains the website.

“Beautiful music, beautiful costumes, and a very happy show,” said Nadine Novak, a designer who joined Ms. Friedman at the performance.

Shen Yun’s website describes how the orchestra achieves a fresh, harmonious sound: “A Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, while traditional Chinese instruments lead the melodies. The sound produced is uniquely pleasing to the ear. The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization.”

“Loved it, just beautiful,” said Ms. Friedman. “I was fascinated with [the Chinese instruments].”

Although the pair of old friends enthused about the cultural revival, they lamented the fact that Shen Yun can’t currently be seen in China because the Chinese Communist Party opposes traditional culture and its profound values. Ms. Novak, hailing from Ukraine, remembers the history of communism all too well.

Several dances depict the persecution of Falun Gong in modern-day China.

“Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is guided by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It has helped over a hundred million Chinese people understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture—Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist schools of thought,” explains Shen Yun’s website. “And yet, the Chinese Communist Party, whose regime and ideology are in stark contrast with the traditional culture of China, has targeted Falun Gong for persecution.”

Ms. Friedman said she finds the persecution of Falun Gong “so brutal.”

Yet the performance was ultimately an uplifting time for the women.

“It opens up your eyes to a lot of things,” said Ms. Friedman.

“We don’t know much about China, it’s been closed for so long,” said Ms. Novak, adding that the cultural revival “is wonderful.”

“This is amazing,” she added. “Wonderful experience. It’s very rich culture.”

Ms. Friedman said she would tell her friends that watching Shen Yun perform is “an experience to remember.”

Reporting by Lillian Chang and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Ms. Pirocek,(2nd L) from Virginia, and her two daughters, Frances and Melissa Boffa attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Ms. Pirocek, from Virginia, and her two daughters, Frances and Melissa Boffa, both Irish dancers, were at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre, on May 8, enjoying the experience of classical Chinese dance and music being presented by Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company.

Frances Boffa, a professional Irish step dancer for ten years, said, “We’re both Irish dancers so we like different cultures.”

She was inspired by the professionalism of the dancers. “All the precision, the costumes, they’re beautiful,” she said.

“I liked the cultural significance and the richness of it. The choreography, everything, I love it,” she added.

Classical Chinese dance is rich with expressive power, says the company’s website. Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system, and so on.

Frances could sense the inner richness of the dances. “It’s sort of like [the performance] exceeds just the dance and goes beyond … to cultural freedom and expression, and [it is] as if life itself were reflected in the show. It was wonderful,” she said.

Melissa was also thoroughly enjoying the performance. “It’s very fluid, very cohesively designed together. The choreography is amazing. So I love all of it. It’s amazing, “ she said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun presents traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization, according to the company.

Ms. Pirocek said the performance was “beautiful,” and she enjoyed the combination of dance and music.

She was particularly impressed by the dance Joyful Little Monks, in which the serenity of a secluded monastery invites pure thoughts and peaceful living. On a bright morning, apprentice monks gather to tidy up the temple with brooms, basins, and wash-clothes. Eager to do well, they put their hearts into their work-with fun and humorous results, says the company’s program.

Ms. Pirocek was also captivated by the dance Flower Fairies where flower blossoms transform into fluttering fairies to join in ethereal dance. She loved the soft pink skirts and gossamer capes worn by the dancers who glide across the stage like petals adrift in the wind, according to the program.

Ms. Pirocek didn’t realize that in China people were restricted in their expression of their ancient culture. “I didn’t think they were so restricted in their choice of continuing the culture and how they dance, and their choice of classical dance. I didn’t realize they were so restricted in that,” she said.

The company’s website states that after more than 60 years of Communist rule in China, and especially after the Cultural Revolution, Chinese traditional culture has been all but completely demolished.

Reporting by Lily Sun and Ron Champagne.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Falun Gong practitioners gathered around Zhongnanhai to silently, peacefully appeal for fair treatment on April 25, 1999. (Photo courtesy Clearwisdom.net)

Following a peaceful demonstration by over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners on April 25, 1999, the then-head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.

To carry out the persecution, Jiang Zemin established the 610 Office, which is able to mobilize resources across state departments. The head of the 610 office is also the head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), which controls almost all aspects of law enforcement in China. In this way, the 610 Office became a second power center within the CCP.

From the 16th National Party Congress in 2002 and the 17th in 2007, Jiang’s successor, Hu Jintao, and Premier Wen Jiabao were controlled by this second authority under the command of Jiang Zemin, and they thus became a scapegoat for Jiang Zemin.

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This is the pain Hu and Wen have had to bear, as they couldn’t give an account of what was actually happening to the international community or the public in mainland China.

On the night of April 25, 1999, Jiang began pushing for the persecution of Falun Gong. On that day, Jiang saw outside his bullet-proof car windows over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners calmly and quietly standing in lines outside the national office for appeals—the State Bureau for Letters and Calls.

Especially after seeing that a dozen of the petitioners were high-ranking military officers, Jiang’s deeply rooted jealousy and resentment exploded. He decided at that time to slander the founder of Falun Gong, Master Li Hongzhi, and eliminate the practice in three months.

Jiang later lied, saying that he had only heard of Falun Gong after the April 25 demonstration. In reality, he had encountered Master Li Hongzhi and several Falun Gong practitioners three or four years previously. His wife had learned Falun Gong, and Jiang himself had tried to imitate Master Li on many occasions.

Practice Spreads in Mainstream Society

Master Li first taught Falun Gong to the public in China on May 13, 1992, in the northeastern city of Changchun. He personally taught the practice in 56 courses, including 13 in Beijing, and 7 in Changchun. Master Li taught the practice with permission from the China Qigong Research Association based in Beijing and in accordance with Chinese laws.

On June 25, 1992, in Beijing, the first course was held in the auditorium of the National Building Material Bureau. The second course started on July 15, 1992, in the auditorium of the People’s Liberation Army Second Artillery, also in Beijing.

Students in those classes were among the upper class of Chinese society. Many students were high-ranking ministers and officials at the bureau, provincial, and state levels, and even the wife of a member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee—the small body that rules China.

At the time, all mainstream people in Beijing knew Master Li was incredible, the most famous qigong master in China. No matter what kind of illness one suffered, if Master Li were asked for help, it would definitely be cured.

At the time, many retired high-level officials learned Falun Gong. After experiencing how Falun Gong healed illnesses, increased fitness, and improved morality, they wanted more people to benefit.

Spread only through word of mouth, Falun Gong grew rapidly in mainland China. By early 1999, over 100 million people in China, mostly belonging to the mainstream society, had read the main book of Falun Gong teachings, “Zhuan Falun.”

While serving as the minister of Foreign Trade and Economy and later first vice premier, Li Lanqing (who later participated in the persecution) had a longtime colleague who was a Falun Gong practitioner. This colleague recommended Falun Gong to Li Lanqing and gave Li Lanqing a copy of “Zhuan Falun.”

Luo Gan (secretary of the PLAC and the one who first implemented the persecution of Falun Gong) also heard of Falun Gong from his previous boss and colleague at the China Academy of Machinery Science and Technology in 1995.

At the time, such officials as the vice prime minister, chairman and vice chairman of the National People’s Congress, and the chairman and vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) read “Zhuan Falun.”

Wang Fang, who was Public Security minister at the time, practiced Falun Gong. Premier Li Peng read “Zhuan Falun.” Li Peng lived next door to Jiang Zemin and gave him a copy of “Zhuan Falun.”

Hu Jintao’s Classmate

Hu Jintao knew of Falun Gong in 1998 at the latest because Zhang Mengye, a classmate at Tsinghua University, introduced it to him. Hu Jintao, his wife Liu Yongqing, and Zhang Mengye entered Tsinghua together in 1959. They were classmates for six or seven years and were very close to each other.

Zhang Mengye’s health was quite poor in college; he even had to take a year-long sick leave. Later, he suffered from the accumulation of fluid characteristic of advanced cirrhosis. His entire face was swollen, and doctors said he would not live long, but his illnesses were all cured after he practiced Falun Gong.

Zhang Mengye told Hu about his experience during their school reunion in 1998. In 1999, Zhang mailed many Falun Gong books to Hu’s wife Liu Yongqing, who wrote a greeting card to express her appreciation.

Jiang Zemin had long been planning to launch a political movement and force everyone to pledge loyalty to him.

It’s been rumored that Liu Yongqing also learned Falun Gong. When Hu Jintao got the book “Zhuan Falun,” he said, “This is a book for Buddhahood cultivation and can’t be placed randomly. It needs to be placed at the top of the bookshelf.”

A day after April 25, 1999, after hearing that Jiang Zemin had decided to persecute Falun Gong, Liu Yongqing wrote a letter to Zhang Mengye, telling him to be careful.

Later, Jiang Zemin intentionally arrested Zhang Mengye and made Zheng Mengye the first Falun Gong practitioner to be sentenced in Guangdong Province. In this way, he wanted to make Hu Jintao a scapegoat—if Hu accepted Zhang’s arrest, then Hu appeared in the public eye as implicated in the persecution.

Jiang Zemin’s Wife

As early as 1993, Jiang Zemin heard frequently about Master Li. It was said that a person close to Jiang was interested in Falun Gong and now and then mentioned Falun Gong news to Jiang, such as someone recovering from a disease by practicing Falun Gong, or someone being carried into Master Li’s class and later being able to walk out unaided.

Occasionally this person mentioned how Master Li had told some senior leaders about their past lives. Jiang wanted to hear about his own past lives.

One day when Jiang was resting in bed, this person came in. He jumped out of bed and asked eagerly, “Did Master Li mention me? Did he say who I was in past lives?” The person replied no. People at the scene were struck by Jiang’s disappointment and anger.

Around 1994, Jiang’s wife Wang Yeping invited someone to her home in Zhongnanhai (the offices and living quarters of the CCP leadership) to teach her Falun Gong, which she started practicing at home. One day, when she was practicing with her eyes shut, she heard someone moving near her and opened her eyes.

She saw Jiang stealthily imitating her movements and folding his hands in front of his belly at the end (a gesture that ends some of the Falun Gong exercises.)

When he found Wang was looking at him, he was embarrassed and enraged. He banned Wang from practicing anymore and said, “Even my wife believes in Li Hongzhi. Who will believe in me, the general secretary?”

But still, Jiang often imitated Master Li’s gestures and movements. Previously Jiang usually put his arms stiffly at both sides when he made speeches, but when he found Master Li often overlapped his hands in front of him, Jiang started to do the same.

In 1995, Jiang’s staff created a “Three Stresses” theory: “Stress study, stress politics, and stress healthy trends.” Jiang pushed the theory nationwide, but he knew it was a rootless theory that nobody would read.

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But Master Li’s books, based on his lectures, became very popular. In December 1994, Master Li’s main book, “Zhuan Falun,” was published by China Radio and Television Publishing House managed by the State Department’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television.

Before “Zhuan Falun” was banned in 1996, it was rated as most popular, several times. People’s respect and gratitude toward Master Li was enormous. From time to time, Jiang heard people talking about Master Li’s noble character and sterling integrity with great admiration. All these things increased Jiang’s jealousy.

Establishing Personal Authority

Jiang stepped up to leadership by being a firm supporter of the bloody suppression of the pro-democracy movement in 1989. He had neither Mao Zedong’s self-confidence nor Deng Xiaoping’s authority, and he had no talent.

Jiang was afraid of shouldering responsibility and always let the Politburo Standing Committee meet to make group decisions on important matters. Knowing few truly respected him, Jiang had long been planning to launch a political movement and force everyone to pledge loyalty to him, in a way similar to how people did during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. His goal was to establish his own authority.

After the April 25 demonstration, Jiang said in a central Party meeting: “Learning from the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, the CCP has long been looking for an opportunity to ‘sanitize’ social ideology. Now that Falun Gong promotes truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, our opportunity has come. We should freely attack Falun Gong and use what is learned [from the suppression] to deal with other qigong groups.”

When Jiang made the decision, he did not take into consideration if it was right to persecute this group of people. He based his judgment on his personal gain, not on morality and conscience.

Challenging Falun Gong With Atheism

On the night of April 25, 1999, Jiang wrote a letter to all Politburo members in the same fashion as Mao’s 1966 letter “Bombard the Headquarters,” which led to nationwide turmoil and the Cultural Revolution. For the first time, Jiang did not consult other people’s opinions.

He said in the letter, “Can’t communists’ Marxist theories, our belief in materialism and atheism, defeat what Falun Gong promotes?” The letter was printed and circulated.

At the Politburo Standing Committee meeting, all the other six committee members argued against the persecution of Falun Gong.

Then Vice Premier Zhu Rongji said: “Their greatest wish is just to become healthy. … So I think it is not reasonable to argue these people have political ambitions. Furthermore, we can’t go back to solving ideological issues with political movements. This is not good for our primary goals in economic development, and worse for China’s image of opening up.”

Jiang jumped at this remark and yelled, with his finger pointing at Zhu, “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! The Party and country will die!” His outburst frightened others.

Zhu, who had been labeled a “rightist” for a comment he made in 1958, fell back into silence. For that comment, he had suffered persecution for almost 20 years, thus fully tasting the iron fist the CCP uses against dissidents.

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In order to force other Standing Committee members to agree to eliminating Falun Gong, Jiang had conspired with then-National Security Head Zeng Qinghong to provide fake intelligence through special agents in the United States. The false information claimed that the founder of Falun Gong was supported by the CIA and received tens of millions of dollars from the CIA.

Jiang announced this “important intelligence” to the central Party. Other Standing Committee members, unable to tell if it was true, had to remain silent.

In 1992, Jiang had used the same tactic to remove two political enemies, Yang Shangkun, former president of China, and his half-brother General Yang Baibing. Jiang and Zeng Qinghong spread rumors in Beijing that the Yang brothers were planning to seize military power and to redress the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Deng Xiaoping was deceived and didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late.

Jiang and Zeng used the same plot against Falun Gong.

Second Power Center

Though Zhu Rongji peacefully handled Falun Gong practitioners’ petitions and received international praise for doing so, and though the CCP kept promising to the outside world that people’s freedom of practicing Falun Gong was never denied or limited, after April 25, 1999, Jiang Zemin was determined to raise his knife to 100 million Falun Gong practitioners. The false promises of not suppressing the group were made only to buy more time for him to prepare to execute the persecution.

Even my wife believes in Li Hongzhi. Who will believe in me, the general secretary?

—Jiang Zemin, former head of the CCP

On June 10, 1999, three days after his speech at the Politburo Standing Committee meeting, the CCP established the “Leadership Team to Handle the Falun Gong Issue,” aka the 610 Office. Li Lanqing and Luo Gan were the top and second leaders of the team. This organization, like the Central Cultural Revolution Team in Mao’s era and Hitler’s Gestapo, was given the privilege to transcend the law.

Since it was not legitimate for a Party organ to directly interfere with government administrative work, Jiang ordered the establishment of the office of the Central Leading Group on Dealing with Heretical Religions in September 2000, which gave the 610 Office the disguise of a government agency.

Though the CCP always denied the existence of the 610 Office to the outside world, the office became Jiang’s most powerful tool in the persecution since it was not limited by any law. He gave all important orders himself and remained the real head of the organization. For fear of leaving evidence, Jiang never put his name on orders. The 610 Office staff would just execute the unsigned orders.

Developing the Persecution

To provide “legal grounding” for the persecution of Falun Gong, Jiang ordered the People’s Congress to issue a so-called anti-cult law on Oct. 30, 1999. The law had no clear definition for the word “cult.” Jiang went against the basic principle of defining crimes by law.

In addition, Jiang’s anti-cult law was an ex post facto law that prosecuted actions that had taken place before the law was issued. Jiang’s actions undermined the Chinese legal system, which was recovering from the chaos of the Mao era.

Jiang’s key strategies for persecuting Falun Gong included “defame their reputations, ruin them financially, and destroy them physically.” He destroyed Falun Gong books, blocked information on the Internet, and defamed Falun Gong in the media. He also charged practitioners high fines, confiscated their personal property, terminated their employment, and interfered with their businesses.

Practitioners were physically eliminated through brutal beating, torture, ill treatment, and the harvesting of organs from living practitioners. The police were encouraged to torture practitioners by being allowed to count deaths from torture as suicide, cremating bodies without identifying the persons, and through the profitable live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.

To incite hatred against practitioners, Jiang ordered Luo Gan to stage the 2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation in which non-practitioners disguised as practitioners set themselves on fire. The news was spread to the world through the Xinhua News Agency at unprecedented speed.

The incident was soon found to be a hoax by multiple international organizations. When questioned, a staff member involved in the production of the self-immolation story said some scenes in the CCTV news reports about the immolations were “shot afterward.”

Changing the Standing Committee

Jiang Zemin also established a special task force to assassinate the founder of Falun Gong. Jiang’s order read in part, “Must improve operations, establish various schemes. … The assassination attempt must succeed.”

Jiang risked using all the state’s money, destroyed the foundation of the Chinese people’s morality, and destroyed the future of the Chinese regime by using brutal and inhuman methods to persecute Falun Gong practitioners who cultivate Buddhahood.

In trying to escape the responsibility and avoid getting brought to justice, Jiang Zemin installed many of his trusted aides in high-ranking positions before he stepped down in 2002, seeking to prevent his successor Hu Jintao from modifying the policies against Falun Gong.

During the 17th National Congress in 2007, he added two additional members to the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. The two additions were Li Changchun, in charge of anti-Falun Gong propaganda, and Luo Gan, in charge of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

This article was first published in the New Epoch Weekly.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

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Carole Price Shanis and Joseph Shanis attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre. (Pamela Tsai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre, on May 9, pleasing Philadelphia’s most renowned arts patrons, Carole Price Shanis and Joseph Shanis.

“Really beautiful,” Mrs. Shanis enthused. “They’re all so graceful, they seem to float on the stage.”

The couple has provided decades of support to Philadelphia’s arts and cultural organizations—including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Speaking at intermission, Mrs. Shanis was already quite taken with the high-level artistic performance. “The classical dances are gorgeous, just gorgeous,” she said.

Classical Chinese dance, at the core of a Shen Yun performance, has drawn “profound wisdom from every era and dynasty,” and through thousands of years has become “one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world,” states Shen Yun’s website. Fundamental training, training in movements and postures, and the ability to master very difficult jumping and tumbling techniques are essential for Shen Yun’s dancers.

Mrs. Shanis especially enjoyed How the Monkey King Came to Be, a dance depicting the central character in China’s classic novel Journey to the West Born out of a rock, Monkey King has magical powers that allow him to travel freely between Heaven and Earth.

His adventures lead him into trouble in Heaven, and a Buddha traps him in his palm. Monkey King is eventually appointed to guard a monk journeying westward for Buddhist scriptures. The digital backdrops enhance the performances like the Monkey King. The dancers on stage interact with and even appear to become the figures on the screen.

“They feel like they’re just popping right out of the screen,” she said. “Unbelievable, really unbelievable.”
As for what she will tell her friends, Mrs. Shanis has very straightforward advice.

“You have to see this.”

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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Marjorie Poole and Jeanne Hansberry (R) attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theater. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—The world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, Shen Yun Performing Arts, drew an enthusiastic response from the audience on Wednesday at the Merriam Theater.

Ms. Hansberry, former ballet school owner, was thoroughly immersed in the New York-based company’s presentation.

“It would be the amazing athleticism I never knew about, and parts of the Chinese personality that I have never seen so clearly,” she said.

New York-based Shen Yun features world-class dancers, musicians, and vocalists, and boasts a unique orchestra playing a blend of ancient Chinese and classical Western instruments, according to its website. After communist rule in China nearly decimated the profoundly rich culture, imbued with virtues such as benevolence, honor, and wisdom, Shen Yun was formed to “restore and revive it,” touring and gracing top venues around the world.

Now aged 71, Ms. Hansberry has danced since she was eight years old. Later in life, she owned her own company, the American Academy of Ballet. After 63 years, her career ended when she closed the academy a year ago.

Ms. Hansberry, schooled in dance, appreciated the skill and flexibility of Shen Yun’s dancers.

“They are very quick,” she said

Within classical Chinese dance lie China’s rich cultural traditions, which allow its movements to be deeply expressive, such that the personalities and feelings of characters can be portrayed with unparalleled clarity, the Shen Yun website explains.

Ms. Poole enjoyed the dance Khata for the Gods. The dance depicts Tibetans, who “seem to embrace” the harsh life in the Himalayas, according to Shen Yun’s program book.

“The dancers in this piece step and stomp, spin and soar with joyful, vibrant energy,” it adds. “In their hands they hold the Khata, a traditional scarf presented to guests. Here they offer it to the gods as a sign of reverence and devotion.”

Ms. Hansberry also admired the special effects of the animated state-of-the-art backdrop. In the performance, Shen Yun’s dancers often interact with screen, with figures on screen disappearing off the edge and reappearing with perfect timing on stage as the dancers.

“I like the special effects, how they bring the animation into real people seamlessly,” she said. “That is pretty neat.”

Reporting by Lily Sun, and Raiatea Tahana-Reese

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. 

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Judith Meyer (L) and Dr. Susan McDonald (R) attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriman Theater on May 8. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Dr. Susan McDonald, president of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Board of Directors, and lawyer, Judith Meyer, one of America’s most respected mediators, were amongst the audience at Shen Yun Performing Arts’ performance at Philadelphia’s Merriman Theater, on May 8.

“Gorgeous! We loved it,” said Ms. Meyer with enthusiasm.

“The dancing was beautiful, the costumes were exquisite,” said Ms. McDonald, who is also president and CEO of National Analysts Worldwide, a research-driven marketing consultancy now celebrating its centennial anniversary as the world’s oldest market research organization.

Ms. McDonald said all of the dances in the Shen Yun performance had appealed to her and she was particularly impressed with the dances using the handmade fans.

They “were exceptionally well done,” she said.

Shen Yun is dedicated to restoring China’s 5,000-year-old culture after years of repression and destruction under communist rule.

“A performance by Shen Yun is a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and the virtues distilled from the five millennia of Chinese civilization,” according to the Shen Yun website.

Ms. Meyer noted the unique Shen Yun Orchestra, saying, “The music was a wonderful blend of Western and Chinese.”

She was also surprised to learn about classical Chinese dance. “I didn’t know that acrobatics were uniquely a Chinese part of dance,” she said.

Classical Chinese dance requires not only systematic training in the fundamentals and in movements and postures, but also very difficult jumping and tumbling techniques.

“Alongside ballet, classical Chinese dance is one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world,” the Shen Yun website says.

Ms. Meyer commented on the dance Snowflakes Welcoming Spring describing it as “exquisite.”

The two professional women also referred to the contemporary dances about the persecution of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a traditional self-cultivation practice, which became outlawed in China in 1999.

“The Falun Gong ones … they were very, very powerful,” said Ms. Meyer.

In one dance The Choice, two young friends go their separate ways, one joins the police force and the other is inspired to practice Falun Dafa and adopt the beliefs of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. When followers protest on Tiananmen Square, they are brutally beaten by the police. The young woman attempts to defend them, and is brought face-to-face with her old friend. He has to make a choice and he forgoes his official duty to protect his friend and the principles for which she has taken a stand.

Reporting by Lily Sun and Lillian Chang.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Dr. Stanley Baum enjoys an evening at Shen Yun Performing Arts in Philadelphia. (Pamela Tsai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Esteemed professors and medical doctors David C. Levin and Stanley Baum attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts showing at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night, complimenting the world-renowned artistic company.

“The dancing is wonderful,” said Dr. Baum, who has many awards and honors and was formerly chairman of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Involving complete fundamental trainings, a broad range of movements and postures, and “very difficult jumping and tumbling techniques,” classical Chinese dance, which is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance, “is one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world,” explains the company’s website. Accompanying the dancers, who are adorned in handcrafted, colorful costumes, are a unique orchestra, award-winning vocalists, and digital backdrops.

“The music is great, the scenery is great,” said Dr. Baum’s wife.

Dr. Levin, professor emeritus of radiology at Thomas Jefferson Medical College. (Pamela Tsai/The Epoch Times)

Dr. Levin, professor emeritus of radiology at Thomas Jefferson Medical College, said “the beautiful choreography” struck him the most.

A Cultural Experience

Dr. John Del Valle, professor of Spanish at St Joseph’s University, also attended the performance.

“It’s exciting, colorful,” he said. “It’s something that opens the door to another world.”

Shen Yun was formed after communist rule in China “all but destroyed” the ancient 5,000 year-old Chinese culture, according to its website, to revive this culture.

“Sophisticated dance techniques, an orchestra joining instruments East and West, beautiful costumes, and a stunning back drop—this is Shen Yun at first glance,” it states. “But digging deeper, one discovers a sea of traditional Chinese culture. Mortals and divine beings merge on stage as one. Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience. Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture.”

“When you are so engrossed in your own culture, you don’t see everything else,” said Dr. Del Valle. “Another world is getting out of your own culture and seeing another culture.”

Backgrounds

Dr. Stanley Baum is America’s medical pioneer and visionary whose dedication to radiologic research and education was instrumental in the formation of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. He has held the post as Chairman of the Department of Radiology at University Pennsylvania for more than 20 years.

David C. Levin, M.D.,professor and chairman emeritus of the Department of Radiology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, served as president of the Society of Chairmen of Academic Radiology Departments, Chairman of the Council on Cardiovascular Radiology of the American Heart Association, and on the editorial boards of six leading radiology journals. A world-renowned researcher and speaker in his field, he was awarded the Gold Medals (the highest honors) of the American College of Radiology, the Association of University Radiologists, the American Roentgen Ray Society. He was once a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The 2012 season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

M.R. Stine and her friend attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night, May 8, enchanting the audience.

“The amount of commitment and the amount of work, and just the amount of will power that it takes to be able to achieve that kind of physical dexterity and virtuosity is just breathtaking,” proclaimed actress and former dancer M.R. Stine.

“The way they move their bodies, and the way they can hold form, and just fly off the stage—it takes so many hours, and so many years, and it’s just incredible to see the results of it.”

New York-based Shen Yun utilizes multiple artistic mediums handed down from antiquity to revive the “5,000-year-old, divinely-inspired Chinese culture,” according to the company’s website. More than 60 years of communist rule in China “all but destroyed” this ancient culture.

Classical Chinese dance is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance. Its website states:

“Classical Chinese dance has a long history of thousands of years, passed down continuously within the imperial palace and ancient Chinese theater and opera. Soaking up profound wisdom from every era and dynasty, it has become a complete system of dance embodying traditional aesthetic principles with its unique dance movements, rhythms, and inner meaning.”

Ms. Stine said, “It was very inspiring to see how people can be so disciplined that are almost flying on stage.

“It was an incredible thing to see,” she added, “but also to see how people are balancing the … message about freedom of speech and freedom of expression with the physical and artistic expression, as well. I thought it was very lovely.”

Dancers are adorned with colorful, handmade costumes, and accompanied by digital backdrops, award-winning vocalists, and a unique musical arrangement, where “Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, while traditional Chinese instruments lead the melodies,” according to the company’s website. Yet the core of the performance—the dance, which includes ethnic and folk dance—stood out to Ms. Stine.

She acts in theater performances using an Italian form called Commedia dell’Arte. She has previously trained in both ballet and contemporary dance.

“It was the footwork I thought was very interesting,” she said. “It was very different from what I studied.”

Although Ms. Stine was familiar with the physical techniques of Chinese dance, the familiar flips, turns and jumps, the comprehensive dance system of classical Chinese dance revealed a performance of a high level.

“I knew that there was an acrobatic component to classical Chinese dance but I never had the chance to see so many different pieces altogether in a row,” she said. “I saw one piece here, one piece there, but to have a whole evening of different versions and different expressions was really exciting,” she said.

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Bob O’Hara and Connie O’Hara attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Five thousand years of traditional Chinese culture enlightened a full-house audience as Shen Yun Performing Arts presented the first of two performances at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night, May 8.

Bob O’Hara, who owns a consulting business in the pharmaceutical business, and wife Connie O’Hara, who is a health professions adviser at a university, both lauded the performance.

Shen Yun offers “glimpses of different facets of Chinese culture over many years,” Mr. O’Hara said. “It’s a much lengthier history of what we have. So, it’s hard to encapsulate 5,000 years into a couple-hour show here, but they’re doing a great job of it,” he added.

According to the New York company’s website, Shen Yun seeks to revive Chinese traditions through performing arts and music, primarily using classical Chinese dance to convey the inner meanings of the culture.

“I think it’s a beautiful pageantry. I love the color, the precision, the music,” Mrs. O’Hara said.

Classical Chinese dance, the company says, is among the most complex systems in the world, having been passed down over thousands of years. The dance has a number of unique postures, movements, and tumbling techniques that are said to convey Chinese culture.

Mrs. O’Hara noted that throughout the performance, there is an “appreciation of nature,” adding that she “loved the [Lotus Leaves] dance.” That particular piece’s “symmetry and the beauty; the way they portray nature so easily in their dances” along with the dancer’s precision is “just really beautiful,” she said.

The performance uses legends and stories passed down throughout the history of China’s lengthy civilization, the company says.

“I think it’s a very interesting cultural portrayal … of both the Chinese culture and their traditions, and I think it’s a beautiful way to experience it through the arts,” Mrs. O’Hara said.

At the same time, Shen Yun touches on China’s current human rights situation. A number of pieces depict the 13-year-long persecution of practitioners of Falun Gong, a meditation and spiritual practice based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

“You can tell that elements of traditional Chinese culture are still being resisted today,” Mrs. O’Hara said, adding “the suppression of the people has been difficult over all the years and that hasn’t changed in many ways.”

“It’s just interesting [and] different glimpse. Everything’s not roses; there are issues, there are challenges. So, it’s interesting to see that brought up head on,” Mr. O’Hara said.

As a result of its depiction of the persecution of Falun Gong, Shen Yun is unable to play in China, even though it has performed in more than 100 cities around the world.

Reporting by Shar Adams and Jack Phillips.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The 2012 season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Psychiatrist and UCLA Professor Dr. Tai Yoo attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Hannah Cai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night, May 8, pleasing the audience with a visually compelling display of one of the most ancient cultures in the world.

Out of all the performances Psychiatrist and UCLA Professor Dr. Tai Yoo had seen, including many in Beijing and Hangzhou, “this is the outstanding one,” he said.

“A lot of good dancing and technological synchronizing with the screen,” he proclaimed. “This is something new.”

Shen Yun, based in New York, has three equally large companies touring the world, “reviving the 5,000 year-old, divinely-inspired Chinese culture,” according to the Shen Yun website.

“Sophisticated dance techniques, an orchestra joining instruments East and West, beautiful costumes, and a stunning back drop—this is Shen Yun at first glance,” the website states. “But digging deeper, one discovers a sea of traditional Chinese culture. Mortals and divine beings merge on stage as one. Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience. Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture.”

Dr. Yoo’s schooling and professional training has taken him from Korea to California; and from Michigan to the New York metro area. He participates in numerous professional societies, such as the American Medical Association, and chairs and directs the UCLA-Kern Psychiatry Residency Program.

On Tuesday, Dr. Yoo enjoyed both the performance and “all the historical dancing from all parts of China,” he said, referring to the vast body of work in a Shen Yun performance. The dancers are trained in one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world—classical Chinese dance—and also depict some of the 54 “officially recognized ethnicities” in China, according to Shen Yun’s website.

Yet despite the passion from the artists of Shen Yun, the company is not currently allowed to travel to China, depictions of traditional culture and the virtues Shen Yun seeks to show the world aspects of China the Chinese Communist Party has worked hard to destroy.

Dr. Yoo believes Shen Yun can help change China.

“This kind of movement .. with a lot of shows will help change mainland China,” he said. “I think the whole Chinese people will work out and enjoy the change.”

Reporting by Hannah Cai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Robert Smith attends Shen Yun Preforming Arts at the Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night. (The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Audience members came away from Shen Yun Performing Arts in wonder and amazement at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night.

“It’s very celestial, beautiful. The artists are all like floating in heaven,” said writer Robert Smith.

New York-based Shen Yun criss-crosses the globe, depicting on stage the 5,000 year-old, divinely-inspired Chinese culture. The company was formed to revive this ancient culture after more than 60 years of Communist rule in China nearly destroyed it, according to the company’s website.

“However, the deeper spiritual core of the ancient culture, with its values of benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens, cannot be destroyed,” it adds.

Classical Chinese dance, an ancient art form that was one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world, is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance, according to its website. Dancers are adorned with colorful, handmade costumes, and accompanied by digital backdrops, award-winning vocalists, and an orchestra that melds classical Western instruments with traditional Chinese instruments, such as the 4,000 year-old erhu.

Mr. Smith said that “there’s something I love about the Asian culture and I learned more tonight by what I’ve been reading and by what they’ve been saying.”

He referenced Shen Yun’s program book: “They mentioned to have real artistry, you have to have inner beauty. That’s a beautiful concept that if you’re evil or if you’re a bad person then you can’t really create beautiful art—I like that. It’s a beautiful sentiment, so that made me feel good.”

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Robert Latshaw and Laura Latshaw attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater, on Tuesday night. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—Five thousand years of traditional Chinese culture enlightened a full-house as Shen Yun Performing Arts presented the first of two performances at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night.

“It was absolutely wonderful,” said Robert Latshaw, vice president of Bryn Mawr Trust Company.

New York-based Shen Yun tours the world reviving a culture nearly decimated by community rule in China—”the 5,000-year-old, divinely-inspired culture of China,” according to the company’s website.

“A Shen Yun performance consists of a collection of group dances programs and three to four solo vocalist or instrumentalists performances,” the website explains. “Each dance number has its own theme, its own story, as well as its own ethnic, regional, or dynastic background. Classical Chinese dance is at the heart of the performance, along with brilliant costumes, breathtaking projection, and an orchestra that combines both classical Western and Chinese instruments.”

“The costumes were colorful, the dancers were fabulous,” said Mr. Latshaw. “It’s definitely worth seeing.”

Classical Chinese dance was passed down over thousands of years “within the imperial palace and ancient Chinese theater and opera,” states Shen Yun’s website. “Soaking up profound wisdom from every era and dynasty, it has become a complete system of dance embodying traditional aesthetic principles with its unique dance movements, rhythms, and inner meaning.”

The orchestra that accompanies the dancers connected with Laura Latshaw, vice president of international market research company Lieberman Research Worldwide.

“The music was great,” she said. “Very interesting culturally, very different than expected. A lot of fun.”

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The 2012 season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Ms. Kimball and Mr. Wiemken attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Hannah Cai/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIA—When Shen Yun Performing Arts took the stage at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday night, musicians Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken found the various mediums of traditional art impressive.

Ms. Kimball and Mr. Wiemken are part of a renaissance band named Piffaro. Founded in 1980, the band performs with early wind instruments, percussion, and strings, and is modeled after the official civic, chapel, and court bands of the 14th to 17th centuries, according to its online description.

Shen Yun’s orchestra melds classical Western instruments with traditional Chinese instruments.

“This is how the effect is achieved: A Western philharmonic orchestra plays the foundation, while traditional Chinese instruments lead the melodies. The sound produced is uniquely pleasing to the ear. The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization,” explains the website. The 4,000 year-old erhu is an example of a distinct Chinese instrument in Shen Yun’s orchestra.

Ms. Kimball and Mr. Wiemken each said that they found Shen Yun’s orchestra “interesting to hear,” and Ms. Kimball especially appreciated the sounds of the traditional instruments. “There’s a very interesting quality to the sound that’s different than the Western instruments that many of the players are playing,” she added.

“They’re amazing dancers,” said Mr. Wiemken, adding that he was both impressed by their synchronism and vitality.

New York-based Shen Yun tours the world “with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture,” after more than 60 years of communist rule in China nearly destroyed this culture, according to the company’s website. Classical Chinese dance, “rich with expressive power,” and with a variety of difficult techniques, movements and postures to master, “one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world,” is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance.

“They’re energetic and gorgeous,” said Mr. Wiemken. “It was quite amazing,” he added, after repeating the word “gorgeous.”

In a Shen Yun performance, a myriad of snapshots into China’s vast civilization gives the audience the feeling of moving through both time and space. Stories and myths, including the classic Chinese novel The Monkey King, and the well-known tale of Mulan, are examples of dance subjects.

“It’s certainly interesting to see the stories told in dance,” said Mr. Wiemken. He particularly noted the Joyful Little Monks, which depicts young apprentice monks in a serene secluded monastery, putting “their hearts into their work” of cleaning up the temple, according to Shen Yun’s program book, “with fun and humorous results.”

“It’s certainly not something that we would otherwise see anywhere else,” said Mr. Wiemken. “It’s quite amazing in that regard, and it’s a problem that we don’t get to experience Chinese culture in much of our experience.”

Reporting by Hannah Cai and Zachary Stieber.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The 2012 season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts left audience members in amazement after it performed at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Tuesday May 8.

Zoran and Aida Murko, husband and wife psychiatrists from Florida, but originally from the former Yugoslavia, were enthused by the performance.

Mrs. Murko called Shen Yun “very unique” and said she “enjoyed it very much.” The performance, she added is a “good learning experience.”

Shen Yun tours the world with the aim to revive traditional Chinese culture that was nearly lost under six decades of communist rule, the company says on its website.

Shen Yun uses classical Chinese dance and different ethnic and folk dances throughout the program and combines that with an engaging visual backdrop, as well as orchestral music that joins classical Western and Chinese instruments.

“The combination of music and visual [presentation],” impressed Mrs. Murko. “They made it so alive,” she said.

Mr. Murko said, “It’s really a combination of visuals and music, and stories about traditional culture and … life’s meanings.”

He noted the company’s precise choreography “is so unique and so professional,” adding, “I’m glad that I did attend it.”

Shen Yun features ancient legends and stories passed down throughout China, but there are a few present-day pieces that touch upon China’s human rights situation. The performance depicts the persecution of Falun Gong, a mediation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

Being from the former Yugoslavia, a communist state, Mrs. Murko said “we could relate definitely” to the modern-day pieces.

In watching Shen Yun, she said it is “good for everyone to know more about cultures, different cultures, and open up your souls and minds; learn about each other, respect each other, understand each other.”

Reporting by Shar Adams and Jack Phillips.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Carl Lindell shares his Shen Yun experience at the Mahaffey Theater on May 5. (Qing Lan/The Epoch Times)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Carl and Lyda Lindell attended Shen Yun Performing Arts’ last Florida performance of its 2012 world tour at the Mahaffey Theater on May 5.

Carl Lindell, a local businessman engaged in real estate, the automobile business, and banking, said, “It’s fantastic. It’s unbelievable. It’s beautiful!

“I love the screens [the digital backdrops]. I love the dancers, the costumes, the music. It’s all great. That’s why we came. We love the Chinese history and culture.

“It’s a very unique show all the way around—everything’s unique about it.”

Speaking of the dancers, he said, “They’re very athletic and amazingly gifted.”

“It’s beautiful, too—the colors and the back-lit screen, the costumes, and all. It’s just a nice experience. It really is,” Mr. Lindell said.

Lyda Lindell, an eye surgeon, said, “Oh, the show was lovely. I’ve never really seen anything like it. It’s very unusual, very athletic.

“I loved the silk sleeve dance [Sleeves of Silk] and the lotus dance [Lotus Leaves]. It was very beautiful, and I like the way the animation is done from the back. It was very interesting,” she said, referring to the animated backdrops.

Lyda Lindell thought that Shen Yun Performing Arts' performance "was lovely." (Qing Lan/The Epoch Times)

Many audience members remark on the colorful and dynamic backdrops. The dancers appear to float seamlessly between the stage and the projected scenes.

“Projected behind the dancers, the hi-tech images lift the stage and set it amidst blossoming landscapes, deep forests, Mongolian prairies, or celestial paradises,” transporting the audience to another world, says the Shen Yun website.

“These digital backdrop designs complement and synchronize all aspects of the performance: the characters, color of the costumes, specific dance movements, props, lighting, the story being told, particular notes played by the orchestra, and special audio effects,” according to Shen Yun.

“The singers are powerful. Everything has been wonderful,” Mrs. Lindell said. “I’ve really never seen anything quite like it, and I’d love to see more.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company, one of New York-based Shen Yun’s three companies that tour the world, performed to a full house in the evening.

Reporting by NTD Television and Louise Rothman.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Former professional singer Daryl Lanier gave her 81-year-old mother an early Mother’s Day treat—a gift to see the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, the New York based Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Mahaffey Theater on May 5.

Ms. Lanier, who now works for a prestigious legal firm in Tampa, said the extravaganza was “fabulous. We loved the costumes, the choreography, the Chinese culture, the music, just all of it was fabulous,” she said.

Shen Yun was created in New York in 2006 by a group of top artists with a passion to revive China’s divinely-bestowed heritage, almost destroyed after more than 60 years of communist rule, the company website says.

Legends from Chinese folklore together with themes of modern-day China are dramatized through classical Chinese dance, vocalists, solo musicians and a full orchestra that plays a blend of ancient Chinese and modern Western instrumentals in all-original composition.

Ms. Lanier enjoyed the dance Lotus Leaves, she said at intermission.

Behind the leaf of every lily pad, there’s a blossom waiting to bloom, the program book reads. The dancer’s unique full circle fans sway like lily pads in the wind evoking scenes of a flowering lotus garden in the summertime.

“They were like lilies, and the dancers were like—yes, they had the [lotuses on their heads]. I thought it was really … and the costumes were fabulous,” Ms. Lanier enthused.

The songstress also thought the vocalists singing bel canto-style opera “was fabulous as well—the volume, the vocals, and the acoustics here are fabulous.”

She admired the hi-tech animated backdrops that interacted between projector screen and stage.

“That was very clever about how the people come out of the screen. That’s very clever,” she said before rushing back to take in the second half of the performance.

Reporting by Qing Lan and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Xavier Chavez and Beverly Barris attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—“The show is fabulous, absolutely incredible!” This is how artist Beverly Barris described Shen Yun, after seeing it at St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater on Saturday afternoon, May 5.

The New-York-based Shen Yun is the world’s foremost classical Chinese dance and music company. Shen Yun seeks to revive and restore China’s 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, including the spirit and values of the culture.

“The dancers are amazing, and the background, I guess it’s digital art, it’s beautiful, the dancers are so flexible, and beautiful,” Ms. Barris said.

Ms. Barris has her own art studio and creates murals, commissioned paintings and sculptures. She describes the purpose of her art as being to “touch and connect with the human soul.”

A trademark of Shen Yun is its striking images projected behind the performers. Many of these backgrounds are animated to synchronize with the choreography and lyrics and provide the landscape and setting to bring to life the stories behind their respective dances and songs.

Ms. Barris saw the show with Xavier Chavez, an airplane technician. Mr. Chavez, whose grandfather is Chinese, said he bought tickets as soon as they went on sale.

“I’m so glad I got them,” he said. “The energy, the coordination that brings everything together, the tradition that brings it out to everybody else today is so powerful, just total amazing.”

“Everybody should come and see it … It is magical, definitely, very magical,” Ms. Barris said.

Reporting by Sally Sun and Rebecca Hunnisett.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Sydney's Capitol Theatre. (Renee Luo/The Epoch Times)

SYDNEY—Distinguished dancer, actor, singer and choreographer, Kelley Abbey is an expert on dance. She choreographed and was the principal performer in the Oscar winning film Happy Feet. It won a Bafta, a Kid’s Choice Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, and more. Ms. Abbey’s career has spanned more than 20 years. She saw the Shen Yun New York Company’s final Sydney show on May 6 at the Capitol Theatre.

She spoke very highly of the performance. “It’s great, I love it! It’s very beautifully done. The dancers are very talented, very skilled. It’s very beautiful, the use of the film with the live element together, it’s really well done … aesthetically beautiful,” Ms. Abbey said. 

According to the company website, “Classical Chinese dance has a long history of thousands of years, and while soaking up profound wisdom from every era and dynasty, it has become a complete system of dance embodying traditional aesthetic principles.” The hand-made silk costumes add an extra dimension to the visual experience. Ms. Abbey noted the fans and silk sleeves worn by the dancers.

“What I love is all the patterns with the use of the fans and the silk sleeves and I love those elements of it. It’s beautifully done.” 

She singled out one of the comic dances and one of the all-female dances. “I liked the cheeky monks [Mischievous Little Monks] because of their personalities, playful, mischievous, and the lilies with the fans, [Lotus Leaves] it’s beautiful,” said Ms. Abbey.

Reporting by Rachael Yao and Rebel Eddy

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 8-9.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

SYDNEY—Mining engineer Mark Wayne was a first time spectator of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company, the world’s premier company of classical Chinese dance and music. He saw the last performance for 2012 in Australia.

From the foyer of Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, Mr. Wayne, who attended the spectacular with his wife, their two daughters, his mother and her friend, paid tribute at Sunday’s matinee on May 6, to the Shen Yun artists.

“Really good! Great. Positive and unbelievable,” Mr. Wayne said.

His eldest daughter, Emily, aged 16, has danced ballet since age 4, so she could appreciate the technical aspects of classical Chinese dance and the traditional and ethnic dances.

“It was really good,” she said, praising the athleticism of the male dancers. “They’re so fit! They’re just like amazingly fit and they jump so far.”

Classical Chinese dance has three main components—bearing, form and technical skill. These basic elements endow a dancer with “incredible expressivity and vast creative potential,” the company website says.

Emily enjoyed them all. “Oh, it was just so amazing. It’s something so different but something so good, like it’s just opened so many more doors that we’ve never seen before,” she said. “They kind of took you on a story through the culture; it was really interesting.”

Shen Yun was created in New York in 2006 by a group of top artists with a passion to revive China’s divinely-bestowed heritage, almost destroyed after more than 60 years of communist rule, the company website says. Legends from Chinese folklore together with themes of modern-day China are dramatized through dance, song, and music.

Mr. Wayne, who had never seen classical Chinese dance before enjoyed every minute, including the Shen Yun New York Company Orchestra, conducted by Ms. Ying Chen. Each stroke of her baton was perfectly timed with a dance at hand, each note producing a mood, be it excitement, despair or joy, in an harmonious blend of ancient Chinese and modern Western instrumentals.

“Lovely, always good to hear live music,” Mr. Wayne said. “Good [music] accompanying all the dancing.”

Two dance scenes linger on in his mind, Showflakes Welcoming Spring and Lotus Leaves. Sequined handkerchiefs twirl through the air to depict snowflakes, while dancer’s full-circle fans are made to seem like lily pads swaying in the wind.

“Beautiful, and very hard to do all that coordination and dancing, it was amazing.”

Reporting by Rachael Yao and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.

Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company, one of three companies currently touring on four continents, will continue to Honolulu for performances on May 8 – 9 at Blaisdell Concert Hall.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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Bella Swartzberg enjoyed the Shen Yun Performing Arts’ presentation at Sydney’s Capital Theatre, on Sunday afternoon. (Oliver Perrett/The Epoch Times)

SYDNEY—Retired dance teacher Bella Swartzberg so much enjoyed the Shen Yun Performing Arts’ presentation at Sydney’s Capital Theatre on the afternoon of May 6, that she would have come again if it wasn’t the last performance.

Ms. Swartzberg danced with the Johannesburg Festival Ballet Company. After teaching for many years she was appointed an examiner and is now also a member of the Australian Dance Adjudicators. She is a life member of the Royal Academy of Dance.

Ms. Swartzberg couldn’t contain her praise, “It is absolutely amazing, the precision, and the costuming and pattern design, the boys with their elevation, simply stunning, and the girls, I love their beautiful arm-lines and their grace, absolutely delightful to watch,” she said. “I’m really excited to have been here today,” she added.

She also admired the inner beauty of the dancers, “I love the way they poise their head,” she said. “They have so much expression on their faces, stunning,” she added.

In order to restore and revive Chinese traditional culture, a group of overseas Chinese artists established Shen Yun in New York in 2006. Today, Shen Yun has already grown to three performance groups travelling the world simultaneously, according to the company’s website.

Ms Swartzberg was also impressed by the background. “The way they came through and danced—really beautiful,” she said.

Members of Shen Yun Performing Arts bring an unusual depth to their work says the company’s website. They take to heart an ancient Chinese belief: that to create true art, there must first be inner beauty.

Ms. Swartzberg found that the choice of music was in perfect harmony with the dance. “I find that the girls [are accompanied by] beautiful graceful music which suits their style of dance, and the men have strong music which suits their jumping and elevation,” she said.

“They’re so agile and supple, it’s really beautiful. I’d recommend anyone to come and see it,” she added.

The dance Joyful Little Monks particularly inspired Ms. Swartzberg. “There was a little girl sitting behind me, she was giggling so much, it was delightful,” she said.

On a bright morning, apprentice monks gather to tidy up the temple with brooms, basins, and wash clothes. Eager to do well, they put their hearts into their work-with fun and humorous results, states the Shen Yun website.

Reporting by NTD Television and Ron Champagne.

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Sydney's Capitol Theatre. (Renee Luo/The Epoch Times)

SYDNEY—Shen Yun Performing Arts presented exhilarating shows throughout its 2012 Oceania World Tour, bringing people of all ages, professions and creeds to Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.

Rotarian, 80-year-old John Phillips, a retired military man and former pharmacist, said the presentation, he attended on April 28, “was brilliant, that’s possibly an understatement but it certainly was brilliant,” he said.

Mr. Philips said the New York-based Shen Yun performance was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

“The choreography was brilliant, and being able to bring together a group of that size is quite remarkable,” he said. “The actions and what they were able to do, and the costumes were incredibly brilliant again, and the backdrop was just something very special, the way that was brought into the whole of the show.”

Shen Yun is renowned for its classical Chinese dance, folk and ethnic dance, its orchestral blend of Western and Eastern instrumentation, unique animated backdrops, and gorgeous costumes. The show gives audiences across the globe a taste of five millennia of traditional Chinese culture.

Shen Yun was created in New York in 2006 by a group of top artists with a passion to revive China’s divinely-bestowed heritage, almost destroyed after more than 60 years of communist rule, the company website says. Legends from Chinese folklore together with themes of modern-day China are dramatized through dance, song and music.

Mr. Philips said he had been to Hong Kong and China a number of times and travelled fairly extensively, so had some understanding of China and its development over the years.

“But when you come to a show like this, it gives you further insight into what China’s history is all about and what has been a very, very important part of their culture and development as a people,” he said.

Included in the program are dances highlighting the suppression of faith and belief in China today, and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the ruling communist regime. Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a traditional self-cultivation practice, which was suddenly banned in China in 1999.

“It’s important I think that the Chinese people have the opportunity to see the show, and I understand that [Shen Yun] at this point in time haven’t performed in China, but I think the [communist] party needs to realise that they can’t bury things.”

“Congratulations on a wonderful show,” Mr. Philips said.

‘A gift from heaven’

Ray Pedroche, teacher of broadcast media at St. Paul University, Quezon City, Philippines, attended the performance in Sydney on May 4.

“I see the emergence of a new consciousness of China, which I appreciate, because of this presentation,” he said. “It is very laudable, more than what the show has presented.”

He believed a consciousness was slowly creeping into the psyche of the Chinese people.

“I can see there’s a line there about ‘no two snowflakes are the same,’ so politics and culture are difficult bedfellows, but somehow we hope that they will merge. And it will come as a gift from heaven that culture and politics will be about peace, hope and love,” Mr. Pedroche said.

Reporting from NTD Television and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 8-9.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Joseph Pastor and his wife were visiting family in Sydney. They had just flown in from Montana in the United States, where Mr. Pastor is a builder and hotel owner. The couple were seeing Shen Yun with their two daughters, son-in-law and grandson.

Mr. Pastor said Shen Yun was fantastic. “It reminds me of an artist’s version sometime of eagles flying and diving. It’s just wonderful. It’s fantastic.”

He particularly enjoyed the opening dance, but added that “everything else was fantastic” too.”

This year’s show opens with An Era Begins, revealing China’s glorious civilization and a regiment of celestial soldiers preparing for a battle between good and evil, according to the program.

The heart of a Shen Yun performance is classical Chinese dance, an ancient system that is one of the most comprehensive in the world. “Classical Chinese dance is rich with expressive power,” states the company’s website.

Mr. Pastor said the dancing was beautiful. “When they move they just float. They hardly touched the ground,” he said.

The company also includes award-winning solo vocalists, something Mr. Pastor thought was “wonderful.”

“Their voices were so fine … I think someone could almost feel it in their bones. They didn’t have to hear it. They could feel it,” he described.

Overall, he said that he “would recommend [Shen Yun] to anybody with heart and feeling.”

Son-in-law Daniel Hollis, an Australian Architect, was also enjoying the performance, saying Shen Yun was “awesome.” “Very colourful, very vibrant, pretty cool!”

Mr. Hollis particularly enjoyed the dance How the Monkey King Came To Be. The Monkey King is the central character in China’s classic novel Journey to the West. He said he was impressed with the colours and enjoyed the humour: “It’s very funny.”

He also enjoyed the Shen Yun Orchestra, which combines classical Western and Chinese instruments. He said the 40-member orchestra was “really good,” complementing the dance “very well.”

Mr. Hollis said Shen Yun was “very well put together,” from the animated digial backdrops that expand and transform the stage, to the dance, to the orchestra.

He was excited about seeing the performance, saying it was a “very enjoyable show.”

Reporting by Rachael Yao and Leigh Smith.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

New York-based Shen Yun captures the spirit of ancient China’s 5,000-year-old culture through classical Chinese dance and music, which moves quickly through regions, dynasties, and legends. Ethnic and folk dances fill the stage with color and energy, the Shen Yun website espouses. Tremendous athleticism, thunderous battle drums, and masterful vocalists are all set to animated backdrops that transport you to another world, it says.

Amidst the delighted matinee audience was Real Estate Agent and Business Broker, Jerry Lawton.

“It was nice, it was beautiful, really, really beautiful … the music, the scenery, the costumes, the dancing. All of it beautiful, very spectacular. Colourful, bright, full of action,” he said.

Classical Chinese dance has a long history of thousands of years and has three main components—bearing, form and technical skill.

“It’s beautiful to watch, very elegant, exhilarating. It’s a lovely show to watch,” Mr. Lewton said of the entire performance.

“I think the costumes were beautiful, the lighting’s beautiful. The backdrops, there’s so much action and so much colour. The whole lot combined, it’s just beautiful.”

For thousands of years, Chinese artists cultivated virtue, believing that to create true art worthy of the heavens, there must first be inner purity, says the company website. Today, Shen Yun’s artists follow this noble tradition. The result is a performance of consummate beauty, purity, and goodness. It is a show that nourishes the soul.

Mr. Lewton was impressed with the performance, saying, “It’s been a really beautiful experience.”

Reporting by Janita and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 8-9.

For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Kerry Gordon (L), a town and regional planning consultant, caught the last performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York-based company's successful 2012 Australian tour. "I didn't expect the music to be so calming,” she said. (David Deming/The Epoch Times)

SYDNEY—Theatregoers in the busy harbour city of Sydney headed for the Capitol Theatre on Sunday afternoon, May 6, for their last chance this season to see Shen Yun Performing Arts present the grandeur of ancient Chinese culture. The matinee marked the end of the New York-based company’s successful 2012 tour in Australia.

Town Planner Kerry Gordon, was in the audience. She said the performance of classical Chinese dance and music was lovely.

“The costumes are beautiful. The dancing is lovely. The music is really … it’s really relaxing. I didn’t expect the music to be so calming,” she said.

“Shen Yun’s unique orchestra, with its original compositions, blends East and West like no other. The distinctly Chinese sound of ancient instruments like the erhu and the pipa are bathed in a rich sea of Western strings, percussion, woodwinds, and brass. The result—two great classical music traditions producing one fresh, unexpected sound,” states the company’s website. 

Ms. Gordon enjoyed the orchestra, saying that it’s always different hearing live music.

“It’s lovely,” she said of the music, calling it vibrant. “I enjoyed it very much.”

One of the features audience members often praise is Shen Yun’s colorful costumes. The hundreds of gorgeous, hand-made garments span China’s dynasties, regions, and ethnic groups, according to the company’s website. Ms. Gordon found the costumes delightful.

“I really loved the costumes. I find the costumes very beautiful,” she said. “They’re just so pretty. … The colours were very, very vibrant.”

The dance Sleeves of Silk caught her attention. The performance displays what are called “water sleeves,” which act as extensions of a dancer’s arms and create an effect of trailing ripples, according to the program.

“I loved the beautiful long sleeves,” she said.

Ms. Gordon said she had been looking forward to seeing the show and learning more about Chinese culture.

“I’m quite interested in learning about the history of different areas of the world … so it was a good opening up to the culture,” she said.

“I’m just really enjoying it. … It’s interesting, it’s beautiful, it’s calming and peaceful,” she concluded. 

Reporting by David Deming and Anna Stute.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 8-9.

For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org 

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. 

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Achilles Constantinidis and his son, who plays the piano, attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at Sydney's Capitol Theatre. (Luke Hughes/The Epoch Times)

SYDNEY—Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company’s presentation of ancient China’s cultural heritage was held, at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, on Saturday May 5.

Catching the afternoon performance was business owner Achilles Constantinidis. He was seeing the classical Chinese dance and music performance for the first time.

“We were just saying, the moves were great, the costumes were great, the animations, all spectacular; more than I expected,” he said.

Renowned for its classical Chinese dance, folk and ethnic dance, its orchestral blend of Western and Eastern instrumentation, unique animated backdrops, and gorgeous costumes, Shen Yun gives audiences across the globe a taste of five millennia of traditional Chinese culture.

New York-based Shen Yun is on a mission to revive the divinely inspired Chinese culture, which has been all but destroyed after more than 60 years of communist rule in China. The ancient culture has a deep spiritual core, “with its values of benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens,” according to the Shen Yun website.

‘Very Impressive’

Frank Wilkins and his daughter after attending Shen Yun at Sydney's Capitol Theatre. (Luke Hughes/The Epoch Times)

Also enjoying the extravaganza was Frank Wilkins, an accountant.

“The standard of the performance was very impressive, the music—the musicians particularly were very good; very good indeed and very professional,” Mr. Wilkins said.

He particularly liked the dance, Snowflakes Welcoming Spring, where dancers’ sequined handkerchiefs go spinning through the air. “That was very good, very original. I think that most of the acts are very original too … very well worthwhile,” he added.

He enjoyed the Shen Yun Orchestra with its fusion of Chinese and Western instruments in original composition, as well as the three vocalists, soprano Chia-Ning Hsu and tenors Tian Ge and Hong Ming.

“I thought the standard was really high and the singing was extremely good too,” he said. “It was impressive. I’d recommend it,” Mr. Wilkins said.

Reporting by David Deming and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 8-9.

For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Phyllis Gaines and Kenneth Walker attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Mahaffey Theater on May 5. (Victoria Wu/The Epoch Times)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Phyllis Gaines, a dance professor at the University of Tampa and a sign-language teacher in Hillsborough County, attended one of the Shen Yun performances at the Mahaffey Theater on May 5.

“It was so fabulous—very colorful, very inspiring! I love it,” she said.

Kenneth Walker, a musician who plays acoustic and electric bass, accompanied Ms. Gaines. “It was incredible—everything,” he said.

“The music was powerful, the performances were incredible. The visuals were just stunning, arresting. They just stop you dead in your tracks. Just gorgeous! And the colors are bright and vivid, very inspiring,” he said.

“The orchestra is incredible. I love it. I love it—the sounds of the Chinese instruments with the Western instruments and the melodic forms and the themes.”

Mr. Walker particularly enjoyed the dances Joyful Little Monks and Sleeves of Silk.

Ms. Gaines agreed: “Sleeves of Silk was very good—totally, hands-down beautiful!”

In addition, she said the lyrics, which are displayed on the digital backdrop during the vocal solos, gave her goose bumps as she read them. “I was almost in tears because what they’re saying is that no matter what, you still can get up and just keep moving forward.”

“That seems to be the theme of the whole show,” Mr. Walker said. “No matter what the opposition is, you just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Ms. Gaines said it was one of her favorite performances, and she’s seen a lot of performances: “It’s very nice, pleasing to look at. You understand the story—they explain every dance. I found myself taking sighs after a dance, like ‘Ahh, that was beautiful, just refreshing.’”

“Coming from my background, performing in dance, in performing arts, you see that it shows that hard work, discipline, pays off. If you were looking for a mistake—none! Very precise, everything was synchronized, everybody was en pointe. It was just unbelievable,” she said.

Both said they would recommend Shen Yun to their friends, and Ms. Gaines said she would definitely be coming again next year.

“I’m going to write on my Facebook, ‘Best show I’ve seen in a long time. Very colorful. Very refreshing. Refreshing is the word,” Ms. Gaines said.

“Refreshing and inspiring,” Mr. Walker added.

Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company, one of Shen Yun’s three touring companies, all based in New York, performed in St. Petersburg. The season concludes this month with performances in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Antonio, and Buffalo.

Reporting by Edie Bassen and Louise Rothman.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.