SALT LAKE CITY—University professor David Pack believes that Shen Yun Performing Arts is an experience that people from all backgrounds can enjoy.
“A wonderful, positive influence for all people of all demographics, all walks of life, all lifestyles. No matter what you like to do in life, this is a great message of being able to understand the differences in others, showing compassion and love, and respecting the divine nature that we all have,” said Mr. Pack, professor of business, communication, and fine arts at multiple institutions, including Utah University.
“Being a professor of fine arts, I feel that I can understand and see the beauty, the grace, the majesty, the precision of what goes on on stage. This is world-class dancing that we’re seeing tonight, and not just dancing but the portrayal of emotion in instrument and voice and in body. It was wonderful,” he said.
“I love how the choreography is just so spot on. It’s hard to be able to do that with so many people. And just to have such a wonderfully large cast to be so talented, and to be able to tour around the world. That’s fantastic,” continued Mr. Pack.
One dance made a lasting impression on him due to the great collaboration between the dancers.
“This year I really liked the flower dance. It was amazing how 13 dancers with precision and synchronicity on stage could create the vision of being a flower with the fans and their costumes and the choreography,” shared Mr. Pack.
“It’s obvious that it’s well-rehearsed. ... I would recommend for anyone to come see it. I come every year,” he said.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture. Mr. Pack said he believes that the more culture one is exposed to, the better we are able to accept each other.
“I think the more that we’re exposed to different thoughts, different cultures, it really enlarges our scope of thought and understanding and hopefully tolerance and acceptance of those that are different than us,” he stated.
“The multimedia presentation is incredible to have live dancers on stage incorporated with digital backdrops. ... It definitely helped portraying all the seasons, spring, summer, winter, fall. ... It was a symphony of color in and of itself on stage,” he said.
Due to its efforts in raising awareness of the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Shen Yun is unable to perform in China today.
“[Shen Yun is] A wonderful message of freedom and divinity that unfortunately can’t be portrayed in communist China, but [I am] grateful that they’re established in New York, here in America, with more religious freedom,” he stated.
“[It’s] wonderful that you can have that message of God and how God helps us regardless of what persuasion we might pursue in terms of our religion. Hopefully, we all realize that we’re more similar than different in our beliefs of God and love and charity and freedom,” he continued.
“Shen Yun can be applicable to all religions because it’s talking about God’s divinity within us and how we as sons and daughters of God should be interacting with each other, striving to bring beauty and grace to the world in our own unique way, our own unique dance through life with our own unique choreography,” he added.
