LAFAYETTE, La.—Shen Yun Performing Arts opened the first of its two shows at the Heymann Performing Arts Center on Jan. 16 to an enthusiastic audience. Business owner Kenneth Wiedrich and his wife, a university counselor, were in attendance.
“It was wonderful. The dances were beautiful. I loved that it was actually very spiritual,” she said.
“It’s giving the message that we should follow our heart and what our spirit tells us—the good things—traditions and things that teach us to do good, and not the things that would cause us to do evil. It’s just beautiful.”
Today, the New York-based Shen Yun is working to revive this lost civilization and bring it back to the world through dance and music, the beauty of pre-communist China.
Mr. Wiedrich, too, said Shen Yun was “very good and uplifting.”
Mr. Wiedrich is already familiar with the Chinese Communist Party’s forced organ transplant from Falun Gong practitioners—a peaceful group of people upholding the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.
Seeing it presented on stage was even more impactful and emotional, he said.
“I’ve read about how the Falun Gong [practitioners] are used for organ harvests because they’re very healthy, and [the communist party] wants their organs. It just breaks my heart. It breaks my heart.”
Also in the audience was geologist Brad LeBlanc, who thought the show was “really superb.”
“I was inspired by the discipline it took to create this kind of dance and artistry. It was really just superb. We didn’t realize that there are eight [companies] touring the world at the same time,” he said.
Mr. LeBlanc loved the three principles—truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance—that were introduced in the performance and will be taking those home with him.
“Superb artistry, superb choreography, superb orchestra, and solo performances. It’s just really good.”
