FORT SMITH, Ark.—On Feb. 6, Mende Staggs, a business owner, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening show with her son Corin Staggs, a professional performer, and her daughter Clarissa Whitehouse, a ballerina.
Standing in the lobby of the ArcBest Corporation Performing Arts Center during intermission, Ms. Whitehouse said the show was fantastic.
“It’s fantastic. I loved the dancing. Did not expect to need to bring tissues but I should have brought a box of tissues,” she expressed.
Its artists are seeking to revive the glory of China’s 5,000 years of history and share, through a series of short dance pieces, all that was good and beautiful in China before communism.
“I actually did ballet for 19 years. So, for me, I’m watching the feet, the lines, and I was just commenting to [Corin] on how even and precise everything was on stage. All the men doing jumps—all their feet were at the same level of the stage—I know how hard that is to do in groups,” she said.
“For me watching, it’s at a different level—I’m sure the people around me were annoyed because I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh, wow, oh.’”
According to the company’s website, the classical Chinese dance we see in China today is heavily mixed with military and modern dance styles. Only at Shen Yun can you find it performed in its purest form—the way it was originally passed down through the generations.
Mr. Staggs, too, thought “the dance pieces were very beautiful.”
“I like that the guys’ dancing is very different from the girls’ dancing. Everything is stern with the guys. [The movements are] fluid but still very rigid in the way that it’s performed. It’s very masculine and they’re not feminizing the men just because they’re dancing,” he stated.
“I also really appreciated the fact that there were equal guys to girls in the show. It’s something that’s unheard of with most dances today.”
Mrs. Staggs, on the other hand, was deeply moved by Shen Yun’s short story-based dance raising awareness about ongoing human rights persecution in present-day China.
“The dancing was phenomenal. I was moved to tears by the piece about modern communism. It was very touching, especially as a mom. I can relate to what [the story character] would be going through in that situation,” she said.
“It’s fantastic and they’re very committed to their craft.”
