SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘Food for Our Soul,’ Says French Audience Member

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Shen Yun Is ‘Food for Our Soul,’ Says French Audience Member
Katia Le Palec came to experience Shen Yun, in Nantes, on Feb. 22, 2023. NTD
NANTES, France—On Feb. 22, spring was already in the Cité des Congrès. Plum and cherry blossoms were decorating the majestic landscapes of ancient China with their bright and warm colors.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts was back in Nantes for a brand new season of ancient and even modern-day stories and classical Chinese dance.

Katia Le Palec is a teacher of qi gong, fan tai chi, and tai chi chuan in Saint-Nazaire and Guérande. She found the performance “magnificent” especially since the ideas of well-being and the return to self is essential to her.

“I am sensitive to it because there is a lot of fluidity, lightness and colors! It’s enjoyable, you get carried away,” she said.

Ms. Le Palec, who is used to working with energy, was able to feel an energy in Shen Yun, which she translates as “fluidity” and an “openness to life.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts’ mission is to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture and history. As its program states, “In the past, China was once known as ‘The Land of the Divine.’ This reflected a belief that its glorious culture was brought down from above. People sought harmony among Heaven, Earth, and humankind, and followed the course of nature. ”
Ms. La Palec identified in the storytelling this connection filled with “lightness, a connection between Earth and Heaven. It’s so fluid, you fly with them.”

“I love Taoism, I love Lao Tzu and I especially love this connection to Earth and Heaven, of Heaven, Earth, and humankind.”

Ms. Le Palec believes the show allows us “to remain in the beautiful and in the creativity, to remain in the singularity, the artistic side... this is food for our soul.”

Pascal Guégan, a company director, offered the Shen Yun experience to his daughter for her birthday on Feb. 22, 2023, in Nantes. (NTD)
Pascal Guégan, a company director, offered the Shen Yun experience to his daughter for her birthday on Feb. 22, 2023, in Nantes. NTD

Pascal Guégan, a company director, wanted to offer the Shen Yun experience to his daughter, Anouk, for her birthday. They came from Concarneau to attend Shen Yun.

I feel peace, I feel a great happiness in me!
Pascal Guégan

“I feel peace, I feel a great happiness in me!” he said.

“This show is incredibly rich in the sense that it is of high quality. There is a lot of color and a lot of technique. The choreography is executed to the millimeter. To me, it shows a very high standard of professionalism!”

Christophe de Gouttes enjoyed Shen Yun in Nantes, on Feb. 22, 2023. (NTD)
Christophe de Gouttes enjoyed Shen Yun in Nantes, on Feb. 22, 2023. NTD

Christophe de Gouttes, a retired Lieutenant General, felt “transported to China.”

“It’s really beautiful, it’s magical,” he said. “In fact, the performances are linked together, are very diversified ... Lots of costumes, lights, dances, music. It’s really magical!”

He, too, was sensitive to this connection to the divine: “There is a rather present reference to the Creator, which is rather surprising because we thought that the Chinese people were really very pragmatic and detached from spirituality. And we realize that, in fact, it has remained in the popular culture.”

Since it came to power in 1949, “the Chinese Communist Party has treated traditional culture as a threat to its rule,” Shen Yun explains. “Through campaigns like the Cultural Revolution, it has systematically uprooted traditional beliefs and destroyed ancient treasures, bringing 5,000 years of civilization to the brink of extinction.”

But since 2006, Shen Yun’s artists have been reviving the traditional, divinely inspired culture of China. Nothing like this can be seen in China today. In fact, Shen Yun is still not allowed to perform there.

Mr. de Gouttes found the spirituality carried forth very interesting.

“I am a Christian and there are a lot of references which I find very similar to the one in Christianity,” he shared.

According to this company director, Shen Yun expresses “all the culture, all the richness of China that has been passed on, and especially the ancient traditional culture and values which are still alive as we see through this show. This show allows us to keep alive and perpetuate these traditional values!”
For Christophe de Gouttes, Shen Yun constitutes “a glimpse into China and in the depths of the soul of the Chinese people which we don’t know very well. So, it’s always interesting to discover a little bit about others and to know what they have deep inside themselves.”
Reporting by NTD and Sarita Modmesaïb.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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