LOS ANGELES—Shen Yun Performing Arts dazzled the audience at its final performance Saturday evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, wrapping up its sold-out runs in Los Angeles.
Coming to take in the last show were John Kissick, senior partner with the multi-billion dollar investment firm Ares Management, along with his son Ryan and wife Kathy.
“Everything I found very enjoyable,” Mr. Kissick said after watching the show.
“I liked the stories that they portrayed and the choreography a lot,” he said, referring to the storylines in Shen Yun dances. He also praised the animated backdrops and the hand-made costumes in the performance.
Before joining Ares Management, Mr. Kissick held executive positions at a number of other financial firms and currently serves on the boards of several local organizations, including the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Admiring all the colors and props in the show, Mr. Kissick said he was impressed by how things that are normally hard to portray, such as lily pads and snowflakes, were represented in the performance.
“Excellent job.”
The vocal performances also stood out to Mr. Kissick, who said the singers had “very strong, big voices.”
Equally impressed with the show, Mrs. Kissick said the performance was “different from anything I’ve seen before.”
She praised the physical ability and the “gracefulness” of the dancers and also praised the music accompanying the dances, performed live by Shen Yun’s orchestra that combines traditional Chinese instruments with classical Western instruments.
“I thought it was beautiful,” Mrs. Kissick said.
Ryan, the younger Kissick who works in education, said he also found the show “beautiful” and was impressed by the talent he saw on the stage.
“I love the dance. Everyone was so talented and wonderful,” he said.
He said he liked the “contrast” in the performance, pointing to the performance of the male dancers and the beauty of the female dancers.
According to Shen Yun’s website, classical Chinese dance is an art form grounded in 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. “Classical Chinese dance is rich with expressive power. Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system, and so on,” according to the website.
Besides the dances in the show, Ryan said he also enjoyed the music played by the orchestra, as well as the vocal performers. He also said the erhu (two-stringed traditional Chinese instrument) player was “very, very skilled.”
Reporting by Lu Rusong.
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in San Diego Jan 19-22.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3WTKCEA4tE[/video]
