SEATTLE—The Gruss family is a busy family. The toil of a doctor, retired nurse, and interior designer leaves little time for activities. However, the family still found time in their busy schedules to see Shen Yun Performing Arts, on April 3.
“I liked the costumes, and the dancing, and the music,” said Joe, a physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
For Eve, Mr. Gruss’ wife, the sense of history offered through the performance was en pointe. “I liked the fact that they gave us all the explanations of what we were going to see—and the history—so we could understand a little bit better why we were seeing what we were seeing,” she said.
“But even without that, I think it would’ve been beautiful,” Mrs. Gruss added. “The effects—like the ocean and the dragon—were fabulous, just fabulous.”
“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” said the couple’s daughter Jennie, an interior designer who operates her own design firm, Jennie Gruss Interior Design Inc. “And the colors are really beautiful, and I’m learning about Chinese history and stories that I didn’t know about.”
Shen Yun’s display of music, history, and dance is only part of its larger mission: to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture nearly wrought to extinction by the communist regime in China.
“So it’s more than just a dance performance, there’s cultural context that’s new for me,” said the young Ms. Gruss, who’s boyfriend also accompanied the family to the performance.
And Shen Yun is unique. She took note: “It’s just very different than a type of performance I’ve seen before. The stories that go along with the dance obviously reference Chinese culture—something new.
“Definitely something new,” her mother concluded.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006
