MEXICO CITY, Mexico—Renowned actress and singer Raquel Olmedo was so impressed with her experience seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts that she left the theater proclaiming she was shocked.
“Really, I haven’t seen a level of perfectionism anywhere else but here, in this show,” Olmedo said at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City after an April 6 performance. “Really, I’m a theater person, and I say, ‘how are they able to do this?’”
“They are made of a different material that is not human really; sometimes I even saw them fly, honestly,” Olmedo said.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s foremost classical Chinese dance company, formed to bring back the glory of a once-lost, 5,000-year-old ancient civilization.
The dance form itself is one that has been refined and passed down over thousands of years, soaking up wisdom from every dynasty. And the production combines such dance with costumes conveying the many regions, peoples, dynasties, and stories of China. This is a culture said to be divinely inspired and a society based on belief in the divine.
The name “Shen Yun” itself means “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” and Olmedo thought the artists lived up to that name.
“They honor the name (Shen Yun) and it’s a respect toward the name, for which I’m profoundly moved and shocked,” Olmedo said. “What a lesson, really. What a high-level lesson of everything they have to give, honestly. My respect towards them.”
Olmedo said she has seen performances on stages across the world and graced many of them herself, but seeing Shen Yun she felt they had accomplished something no one else has before. As if the performance had been ordained by above, and the artists rose to the challenge.
“I’m shocked, I’m shocked,” Olmedo said. “This show is like an order that was given in a period of time and that they said: ’this is the basic point of everything and no one can fail with this,' and you can see that they have truly hypnotized on stage, it’s something fabulous. Sensational.”
“I’m almost on the verge of tears, honestly,” Olmedo said. “The message they have is to revive a culture and not let it go away for humanity.”
She felt this mission in the performers’ hearts.
“There’s no one on stage that keeps a bit for himself, herself. Every dancer steps on stage and starts giving all they have, all they were taught, all they learned. Everything that they have the duty to give us. That’s what really moves me,” Olmedo said.
“The truthfulness they have, the respect they have, respect they have to themselves, and respect that transmits to us, the audience. I’m really thankful,” Olmedo said.
