ORLANDO, Fla.—Federal intelligence analyst Vaitiare Salas and her husband Humberto Marrero, a health care investigator, loved their first experience with Shen Yun at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Exiting the theater on May 11, Mrs. Salas said the show was amazing and very educational.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Through short dance pieces and solo musical performances, Shen Yun artists are seeking to revive China’s 5,000 years of traditional culture.
Their goal is to share with everyone the beauty and glory of pre-communist China.
Mrs. Salas is from Venezuela, so she understood firsthand the difficulties of living under communism and deeply appreciated Shen Yun’s story dances that raise awareness about the human rights violations ongoing in present-day China.
“China and Venezuela have some similar views. Unfortunately, we’re going down the same track as China, losing a lot of our freedoms,” she stated.
“So, it’s definitely nice to watch people fighting against that. It’s the hope for a better nation.”
After watching the final dance piece depicting the Creator’s descent from the heavens to save mankind in times of trouble and corruption, Mr. Marrero said, “It was a very humbling experience.”
“Very beautiful. It allows you [to feel] there’s hope again for change.”
Also at the performance were Shaun Patterson and his colleague Jonathan Sholtz. The two friends work as cloud engineers at Disney.
“It was visually stunning, and the overall movement—there’s no way I could do that but it’s beautiful to watch. Just absolutely fantastic,” Mr. Patterson exclaimed. “I looked online a little bit and was just amazed. It was brilliant.”
He particularly enjoyed the piece depicting a young girl from a wealthy family who overcame all obstacles to marry her love and remained devoted to him, patiently waiting for his return from war for 18 years.
“It was very, very heartwarming,” he expressed. It showed him that “love spring is eternal and some things are worth waiting for.”
Mr. Patterson, on the other hand, loved the classical Chinese dance piece where female dancers used fans to mimic yellow blossoms blooming in the spring.
Thinking back to when he was in the military, Mr. Patterson said, “That’s the kind of thing that brings [me] joy and happiness to be here—to still be alive. It was just stimulating, and it made me happy.”
He believes that the Chinese Communist Party gave Chinese culture a bad name.
“[Asian countries,] they’re all different, but they all seem happier than most. I’ve lived all over the world, and they seem to be the most devoted. They really strive for education and family. I think most other parts of the world lost that.”
“They were fantastic. They have such a great sound, and there are so few of them. I was like, ‘Wow.’ I never heard a note that was missed. It was all perfect. The tenor and the soprano were just fantastic. I really enjoyed it,” Mr. Patterson said.
Mr. Scholtz “highly commends [Shen Yun performers] on a very, very entertaining and moving performance.”
“It touched me deeply. It was very heartwarming. It was very enlightening,” he said.
“The stereotypical Chinese culture that is taught in America is not what this was. This was very beautiful, very clean, very crisp. It moved me, it’s beautiful.”
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