SAN FRANCISCO—Shen Yun Performing Arts sold-out performance at the War Memorial Opera House, Sunday afternoon thrilled a diverse range of theatergoers.
“It’s beautiful, really beautiful. Oh, I think it’s remarkable!” said Kristen Oliver, a music professional.
Ms. Oliver is a musician and board member of the San Francisco Lyric Chorus, an auditioned, mixed-voice chorus that performs a diverse repertoire with an emphasis on classical choral music and rarely performed works.
Ms. Oliver attended the performance with her daughter, who loves dance and participates in an after-school program at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts California. Fei Tian instructs students in classical dance, music, and fine arts.
Ms. Oliver was particularly impressed by New York-based Shen Yun’s women dancers, especially when they performed as a group. “We could see the whole stage and all of the formations, and when they would come together and spread out—it was beautiful,” she said.
“The dancers—they are so athletic, and graceful, and precise.”
“A Shen Yun performance features the world’s foremost classically trained dancers, a unique orchestra blending East and West, and dazzling animated backdrops—together creating one spectacular performance,” according to the company’s website.
Visual Charm
Retired painter Jenny Jones plans to tell her artist friends that Shen Yun “was very visually stimulating, charming, and beautiful.”
“The content was gorgeous,” she added.
She elaborated, “sometimes dancers dance and it’s movement, but sometimes there’s an obvious passion, and I felt that there was a lot of obvious passion in the dancing.”
Mrs. Jone’s husband Will Furth is a retired sculptor and arts administrator. He said the digital backdrop and animated settings “gave a great dimension to the show.”
Mrs. Jones said the backdrops were “gorgeous,” but also “visually very exciting.”
Lars Foleide enjoyed the animated backdrop in Shen Yun Performing Arts at the War Memorial Opera House, Sunday afternoon. (Alex Ma/Epoch Times)
Lars Foleide, CEO of Nevara, an urban farming platform, said he was captivated by the animated dragon which appeared in one of the story dance pieces, and the use of animation as a way to visually convey ancient stories that traditionally would have been passed on verbally.
Mr. Foleide is also a doctoral research fellow with two Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees.
After seeing the Shen Yun performance, he took away that there is hope that “something from 5,000 years ago—and is long gone—that it might flourish again.”
He added that he would strongly recommend Shen Yun to friends.
Reporting by Gary Wang, Alex Ma and Ananda West.
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.
