ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Richard Farkas, president of Onlinesports.com, attended a sold out afternoon showing of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company March 1 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
He was highly impressed.
“[It’s] fantastic. Unbelievable. It’s something that everyone should see,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’ve had contact with Asian people, especially [people from] China, for my whole life.”
Shen Yun is non-profit, New York-based classical Chinese music and dance company that tours the world for six months out of the year on its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.
Shen Yun’s website explains, “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.”
The performance includes a variety of vignettes that transport the audience across China’s lands and history. A digital, animated backdrop sets the context for each piece, whether it be the vast Mongolian plains, an idyllic village along the Yellow River, or a serene heavenly paradise.
Mr. Farkas especially enjoyed the dance combined with the backdrops.
“They seem to be floating on stage,” he said of the dancers. “And the photography is fantastic. The way [Shen Yun] puts together the stage performance as well as the ... backdrop is unbelievable. It’s so perfect. Everything was just so perfect,” he said.
Beautiful, Educational, Inspirational
Gene Stoner, a neuroscientist for Salk Institute for Biological Studies, attended the afternoon showing of Shen Yun with Carolyn Neil, a nursing school graduate.
Both enjoyed the performance.
“It’s beautiful, and it’s educational, and inspirational,” Mr. Stoner said. “I love the costumes.”
Ms. Neil enjoyed several aspects of Shen Yun.
“It’s beautifully done,” she said. “The backdrop, the way they did the three-dimensional, flowing in and out—I love that. And the costumes, the colors, the delicacy.”
She was referring to the way in which the backdrop, or digital animated projections, is integrated with the dancers on stage. In some pieces, dancers leap from the stage and suddenly appear as animated characters in the backdrop flying, or they descend from the sky on the screen, disappear, and suddenly appear on stage.
Shen Yun’s website explains the backdrops as “magical windows to completely different realms” by “extending the stage and transporting the audience to a world where heaven and earth are one.”
Reporting by Jane Lin and Albert Roman
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.
