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HOUSTON—China’s rich history and culture came to life on stage and delighted the audience at the Jones Hall for Performing Arts with Shen Yun Performing Arts’ second show in Houston at the Dec. 27 matinee.
The New York-based company’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through traditional arts, like classical Chinese dance.
“It’s interesting to try to understand how the dance, the gestures [and] what emotion they try to communicate,” said Mr. Randy Marshall, a senior medical director and associate professor at Columbia University.
Classical Chinese dance is comprised of technique, form, and bearing, according to the Shen Yun website. Form refers to the hundreds of exquisite movements and postures, and requires perfect coordination and accuracy. Bearing focuses on the “inner spirit,” and technique includes all of the difficult turning, jumping, flipping, and tumbling moves.
Mr. Marshall attended the show with his wife, who he has lived with in New York City for 21 years.
“I think all of them are very beautiful,” said Mrs. Marshall of the female dancers’ movements.
‘A Great Performance’
Ms. Esperanza Hicks attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts matinee at the Jones Hall for Performing Arts in Houston on Dec. 27. (Catherine Yang/The Epoch Times)
Also in the audience was Ms. Esperanza Hicks, a bilingual teacher.
“I love other cultures,” Ms. Hicks said. “I wanted to get to know about other cultures.”
Ms. Hicks said she found that the Chinese culture was “very spiritual, that’s very important. You have two parts of your life, spiritual and materialistic. You have to balance them, so you can be more excellent. It has to be combined.”
Chinese culture is known to be “divinely inspired,” according to the Shen Yun website, and the countless literary and art works, historical documents, and relics and records throughout the dynasties show no different.
“It was a great performance,” Ms. Hicks said. “I felt like I was learning and enjoying. I had a fun time.”
Reporting by Sunny Chen and Catherine Yang.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. The Shen Yun International Company will be performing in Houston through Jan. 1. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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