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HOUSTON—Shen Yun tickets were a thoughtful Christmas gift from a family friend for entrepreneur and yoga expert Jasna Abraham.
“It was a lovely Christmas gift,” she said after seeing the Dec. 30 matinee at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. “We had never been before and we were very pleased with the presentation. Loved it.”
Ms. Abraham admired the choreography, the music, and the skill and expressiveness of the dancers.
“I felt it was very well choreographed,” she said. “The orchestra was excellent, the dancers were very precise and very happy expressions on their face, and I will come back again. I was very happy.”
Ms. Abraham owns a yoga studio with many corporate clients, and she also “established a successful Yoga Teacher Training Program in Houston, Texas for both beginner and master level certifications,” according to her website.
Her background gave her an affinity for Shen Yun’s rich cultural presentation. She said, “I’m just very grateful that we can teach people of all ages from all parts of the world and different religious backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds—people who’ve never been exposed to the Chinese culture—that Shen Yun has brought this to New York, and the company continues to bring it to different cities across the world.”
Ms. Abraham said she was thrilled and uplifted by what she experienced. “I loved the drama and the orchestration of the music and the instruments they were using. It was very uplifting, very emotional. I really loved it. I really enjoyed it.”
She said the dancing, the costumes, and the history behind the dances, as well as the stories, myths, and legends, were lovely.
Each Shen Yun performance includes narrative dances. According to the company website, “A unique feature of Chinese civilization is that its history has been documented and passed down uninterrupted for 5,000 years, sometimes in vivid detail. This provides Shen Yun with vast source material, making it possible to revive this ancient culture on a present-day stage.”
At the core of Shen Yun are classical Chinese dancers, performing one of the most difficult to master dance forms in the world. Adorned with handcrafted costumes, they are accompanied by digital backdrops and an orchestra that combines both classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments, according to the company’s 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.”
Ms. Abraham said she looks forward to recommending Shen Yun to others.
Reporting by Sunny Chen and Mary Silver.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s International Company will be performing in Houston through January 1. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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