AUSTIN, Texas—Shen Yun Performing Arts was a moving experience for stage actor Harvey Guion and his wife Kathleen Guion, former executive vice president of Dollar General and now outside director of True Value, when they attended the performance Friday night at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas.
Mr. Guion, who performs with the Zach Scott Theater, Salvage Vanguard, and Austin Shakespeare Festival, thought the performers were “entrancing.”
“I think they were very good, very good,” Mr. Guion said of New York-based Shen Yun’s performers. “The athleticism of it, and the beauty of it.”
Mr. Guion said he felt instinctively that it was “entrancing, it’s very lovely, visually it’s stunning, and the music is quite engaging and the stories are engaging.”
“The stories are fascinating, they’re very interesting,” Mr. Guion said, adding that he particularly connected to An Unexpected Encounter.
The dance tells a story of a father and daughter on a trip in China, who witness a trio of people practicing the spiritual discipline known as Falun Dafa in a park, according to the program. Unbeknownst to the tourists, the practice is outlawed and persecuted in China.
“That piece was very moving,” Mr. Guion said.
Mrs. Guion added that they had been to Tibet and witnessed the religious persecution by the Chinese regime there as well.
“When I saw particularly the Tibetan dance and then when I saw the piece on the religious persecution, it brought back all the memories,” Mrs. Guion said. “That stirred all that emotion up.”
Mrs. Guion appreciated Shen Yun’s mission to revive traditional Chinese culture amidst the communist regime’s oppression of traditional Chinese values.
“I think [Shen Yun is] talking a lot about honoring the culture and the history,” Mrs. Guion said.
“I think it’s lovely, I think it’s beautifully staged. I think the costumes are absolutely stunning and the performers are so graceful but athletic at the same time,” Mrs. Guion said.
Shen Yun International Company will be in Austin, Texas through April 13.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
