ST. PETERSBURG—Artist, poet and musician, Stone Handy, was moved by the Shen Yun Performing Arts’ portrayal of China’s 5,000-year cultural history, held at the Mahaffey Theater at the Progress Energy Center on April 28.
Mr. Handy said he doesn’t frequent many shows, but “this one met my every expectation, and more. I was touched by the perfection of it, the choreography, the excellence of the orchestra—it was just perfect. That is what moved me.”
The artist said he couldn’t narrow the performance down to just praising one thing.
“The costumes were magnificent, all the flowing and the extra garments and the spinning ... it was just one after another after another.”
Mr. Handy liked that the narrators introduced each program, which kept him on par with what was being presented, he said.
New York-based Shen Yun has aspirations to revive ancient China’s divinely-inspired heritage through the dramatization of China’s favorite legends, folk stories and the like, depicted through classical Chinese dance and music.
“The stories were wonderful,” Mr. Handy said, mentioning one that portrayed the persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong in China, An Unexpected Encounter.
“Every country has problems … so these kinds of stories I am not surprised. But I was very interested in the way they presented it. A tourist innocently got in front [of a group practicing meditation] for a photo and then suddenly being beaten. That was pretty moving.”
He said he had found “so much divine” in the history of China and he believed in Buddhist practices and its philosophies conveyed on stage, “gentleness, tolerance—things that are taught.”
Mr. Handy saw from one other dance how “divine love” will heal the earth.
“We just have to access [divine love] through the way we act and treat others, and the way we respond to difficulties. That is the way we are going to fix it. It’s not going to be with guns and bombs—that only makes things worse.”
He was accompanied to the show by community network representative Lehua Pettay from Tampa Bay, who had succumbed to her emotions.
“It was fantastic, it brought tears to my eyes,” she said, adding that the entire performance had touched her.
“All the stories, especially the tourists going to take pictures and [how] they got into trouble, get imprisoned and how people practicing their [beliefs] was prohibited and punishable—I believe in freedom.”
Ms. Pettay said the Shen Yun performance contained a “very valuable message,” which she found inspiring.
“It helps open people’s eyes to what is true and how we are connected. And to me the truth is unconditional love everywhere, not just for everyone but for everything—it is everywhere.”
Reporting by Sally Sun and Raiatea Tahana-Reese
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
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.
