BERLIN, Germany—The International Congress Centre (ICC) in Berlin hosted the second 2012 Shen Yun Performing Arts show on Saturday, March 17.
Despite the large differences between traditional Chinese and German culture, the dance, music and back drops of the New-York based Shen Yun performance bridged that divide when performing at Berlin’s ICC.
Shen Yun brings to the world classical Chinese dance, world-class singers, and orchestra composed of both Western and Chinese instruments.
Mr. Klaus Polaschek, a media designer, and his wife Ms. Svetlana Polaschek said that they had no difficulty understanding the deeper meanings of most of what the Shen Yun artists wanted to convey.
Referring to the backdrops that enhanced every scene performed on stage, Mr. Polaschek said, “Beautiful pictures—I’m certain that I retained everything I have seen, even if I can’t remember all of what was presented on stage at this time.”
Everything he saw performed on stage was stored in his memories, with some coming to the foreground immediately after the end of the show.
“The dance Lotus Leaves was fantastic, as well as the dance that gave a final farewell to winter we saw before the end of the show,” he said.
Ms. Polaschek was as delighted with the show as her husband and added, “The scene Snowflakes Welcoming Spring was breathtaking.”
Just about every dancer’s movement, every musical note played by the live orchestra, every scene from beginning to end brought the couple an experience they rarely felt before.
“We are totally spellbound with what we have seen tonight,” said Ms. Polaschek.
Her husband couldn’t agree more and said, “This is the first time we have been lucky to see such a show and we are truly overwhelmed.”
Drawing on some of his memories of the evening he said, “The costumes, the dances—absolutely beautiful.”
There were also scenes of what is happening in China today, which was new to the couple.
“For us, the message coming from some of the scenes of modern China was difficult to understand as we had not heard of it before. But it was a message we need to understand,” Mr. Polaschek said.
Mr. Polaschek shared his opinion of the evening’s performance saying, “We loved the entire show, even if we sometimes didn’t quite understand what message we were receiving, because the artists were so pure and outstanding. They presented everything in a professional manner, in unison, and yet, each was an individual with his and her own character.”
They left the venue after expressing once more their thoughts on that night’s show, “All we can say is it was wonderful.”
Reporting by Qin Huang
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will next perform in Zurich, Switzerland from March 23-25.
For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
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