JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Jacksonville City Council member Michael Boylan enjoyed seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts’s expression of traditional Chinese culture and tradition when he experienced the dance and music performance on April 24.
Through the performance, Boyland was able to journey through China’s 5,000 years of civilization and history and learn about what the ancient Chinese brought to the world.
“I think it’s marvelous to see the breadth of expression. I mean you learn about culture, you also learn about the geography and the sense of the breadth of the community. And it’s nice to see that and the uniformity of dance even tell the story about how they are one people,” said Boylan, who saw Shen Yun at the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts.
The New York-based company is nearing the end of its 2019 tour wherein six equal-sized groups travel the world simultaneously to bring back genuine traditional Chinese culture and values to the modern times.
Shen Yun has performed to sold-out performances in renown theaters across the globe.
Boylan said he was captured by the energy and enthusiasm of the performers, adding that he thinks the energy comes from the performers interacting from one another.
“I’m certain they play off of each other, they must, they have to. So that’s part of it. I’m certain it’s conditioning and the pride of being in a position to represent their culture and their community. So I’m sure there’s a sense of responsibility and pride in that as well,” he said.
“It’s hard to appreciate it so well performed that you don’t think of it, it doesn’t interrupt at all. It’s meant to obviously complement the performance and enhance it at the same time, but they’re impeccable,” he said.
“They did a marvelous job, a marvelous job. You almost forget that it’s not pre-recorded music. It’s hard to think about the fact that they are performing live down below. I wish they would, love to come up and we could see them perform, that would be very nice,” he added.
With reporting by Sally Sun.
