Mai Zong Vue (2nd R) and Hmong Institute members enjoyed Shen Yun at the Overture Center for the Arts after seeing a performance the evening of Feb. 10, 2024. (Frank Liang/The Epoch Times)
MADISON, Wis.—Mai Zong Vue, CEO of the Hmong Institute, is a fan of Shen Yun Performing Arts, and so are the elders within the institute.
“This is our fourth time,” said Ms. Vue, who brought 23 guests to see Shen Yun at the Overture Center for the Arts on the evening of Feb. 10. “We come every time when they come here.”
“We are Hmong from Laos, but our ancestors are from China,” Ms. Vue added.
Since 2006, Shen Yun has become a global phenomenon, performing nearly 800 shows in 200 cities around the world this season. Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
“It combines a lot of art, a lot of music, and a lot of history,” said Ms. Vue, praising the innovative backdrop technology and choreography. It’s an experience that “enhances my mental health,” she added.
‘Opens the Heart’
Also in the audience was Noel Radomski, a research professor, who was seeing Shen Yun for the very first time.
“It’s wonderful—the music, the dancing—the dancing is just unbelievable, it’s beautiful, powerful,” said Mr. Radomski, who’s seen his fair share of dance with a daughter who dances ballet professionally. “It’s just unbelievable.”
Noel Radomski at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Overture Center for the Arts after seeing a performance on the evening of Feb. 10, 2024. (Stacey Tang/The Epoch Times)
Ancient China was an entirely new subject for him, Mr. Radomski said, and entirely different from the China one sees in the news today. The emceeswho introduce each upcoming vignette, the innovative videography employed in the backdrop, and the narratives told through dance helped him follow along and better understand this history and culture, he explained.
Once called the “land of the divine,” the ancient Chinese believed their culture divinely inspired, a gift from the heavens. The deeply spiritual civilization drew much from the principles taught in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and society prized the five cardinal virtues.
“It shows me a history that I was not aware of whatsoever, or very little. This is going back to the history and culture,” Mr. Radomski said. “And in a setting where it’s not political, it’s cultural.”
“It’s in the arts,” he said. “it really opens the eyes and opens the heart.”
He felt the performance drew him in and transported him.
“You get into the dance, you get into the music, and that’s when it goes into the body. That’s when it becomes a sense of feel, a sense of place, and I’m almost within the dancers. I’m also within the setting,” he said
