SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Shows ‘How You Revive Culture,’ Says Professor

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Shen Yun Shows ‘How You Revive Culture,’ Says Professor
Marco and Alicia Gonzales enjoyed Shen Yun at the San Diego Civic Theater on Jan. 20, 2024. Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times

SAN DIEGO—Professor of philosophy Alejandro Orozco was inspired by the grace, beauty, morals, and traditions of 5,000 years of civilization and shared that inspiration after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the San Diego Civic Theater.

“I think without spirit, we don’t have any hope,” said Mr. Orozco, now retired, after seeing the Jan. 20 matinee.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company and presents a story of China that cannot be found in modern China, which is currently under communist rule. For thousands of years, traditional Chinese culture was believed to be inspired, and the culture was a spiritual one.
Mr. Orozco appreciated the revival of traditional culture through art and expressed gratitude toward Shen Yun’s artists.

“When you have individual expression, and you have ideas that can be expressed freely, you know, that provides hope. The suppression of ideas destroys human hope and faith. You have to have expression of ideas—and art,” he said.

“What better thing to revive culture than art? That’s how you revive culture, is art.”

‘Really Powerful’

The story of China, as told by Shen Yun, also inspired the Gonzales couple, who read about the company and its mission on the drive to the theater.
“It was so beautiful, it was really beautiful,” said Alicia Gonzales, an emergency physician, who teared up and became emotional during an interview as she recalled the beauty of the performance.

“The world is kind of dark right now,” she explained, “there are a lot of bad things and hatred and oppression—and it’s just amazing to see such beauty, like beautiful celebration of a culture.”

“The most beautiful parts of it coming through ... bringing history to us. I just thought it was really cool, wow,” she said, adding that she had cried during some of the performances as well.
A Shen Yun program generally consists of more than a dozen vignettes, with classical Chinese dance, story-based dances, ethnic and folk dances from some of China’s 50-plus minority groups, and solo musical performances.

“It’s amazing that they’re, you know, out there spreading such a beautiful culture, such a deeply beautiful culture in such an artistic way with the live music and the beautiful colors and the incredibly graceful dancing,” Ms. Gonzales said. “They’re so in unison, and you know it really flows. The energy is really beautiful, and then they’re telling a really deeply powerful story at the same time.”

“It looks beautiful and simple on the surface, but it’s really deep and really meaningful,” she added. “So I think that in this modern time, there’s a lot of darkness in the world. It’s just really beautiful, it’s really powerful.”

Marco Gonzales, a sound engineer, said the audience had been so captivated that “you could hear a pin drop,” except in this case, it was the movement of the beautiful costumes the dancers sometimes used as props.

“It’s so beautiful to watch,” he said. “Everybody’s obviously in awe at the presentation, and you can really tell.”

Mr. Gonzales added that while listening to Ms. Gonzales read about Shen Yun on the drive over, he could conceptualize what he was about to see, but the real thing was so much more.

“I’m like, oh my God, this is what she was talking about,” he said. “It’s really amazing.”

He was impressed with all the work Shen Yun members have put in and encouraged them to “please teach others and let it continue.”

With reporting by Jane Yang and Linda Jiang
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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