CINCINNATI, Ohio—“Take advantage of these things when they come. There is so much beauty and art from other cultures, you just have to go and appreciate it,” said Christian Sigman, county administrator for Hamilton County, Ohio.
Mr. Sigman was speaking of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company at the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Feb. 4.
“You don’t know until you see it, it’s hard to describe … you can’t imagine it until you see it,” said the public official, who studied in the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. Sigman’s wife is also an executive. She is Carol Sigman, audit director for the Fifth Third Bank. The couple learned about the event through their son’s junior high school Chinese class. The whole class came to the New York-based company’s performance.
Mr. Sigman spoke highly of the beauty he saw and heard. “It’s wonderful, I was saying to someone in the aisle that this is a stark contrast to the Super Bowl, the choreography is so beautiful, so unbelievably beautiful, the colors and how they put them all together, it’s amazing,” he said.
Mrs. Sigman was counting her blessings. “I think Cincinnati is very lucky to have (such world class artists) come to this town. It’s wonderful and I’m so proud of my son’s school for bringing their class to this event.” Shen Yun performs in the great cities of the world, such as London, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Washington and of course, New York.
Mr. Sigman said he admired the projected backdrops and said the other props were effective and creative.
“It’s amazing … smoke, bombs going off,” he said. “It’s just beautiful what they can do with just silk and the fans.”
Shen Yun has a full orchestra playing a unique blend of ancient Chinese and Western instruments. It also features award-winning vocalists who sing solos.
“It’s amazing what they can do with the arts and how they mix it with the music ... It’s wonderful. It’s like what Carol said, we’re very lucky for a city this small to have that type of performance here, outside of New York, Boston, Chicago this is wonderful, we’re very fortunate and I’m glad to see so many kids here to actually witness it.”
Mr. Sigman found the stories and meaning in the performance easy to follow, he said. “Whether its deities and conflict, strife and love, hate and war, it’s the same in every culture, no problem in understanding it.”
Reporting by Charlie Lu and Raiatea Tahana-Reese
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Friends Read Free