SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Dance Studio Owners Applaud the Hours of Work by Shen Yun Performers

Apr 01, 2023
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Dance Studio Owners Applaud the Hours of Work by Shen Yun Performers
Len and Debbie Wiens at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, in Seattle, on April 1, 2023. (Sunny Chen/The Epoch Times)

SEATTLE—Len and Debbie Wiens attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall on April 1, 2023.

The Wiens founded a dance school, and Ms. Wiens is the artistic director. “My husband and I actually run a dance school, so we really appreciate [Shen Yun]—all the choreography, the beautiful costumes, and all the work behind it,“ she said. ”We loved the show. It was so beautiful.”

Mr. Wiens concurred. “It’s amazing, it’s wonderful. They’re obviously very, very professional. [It’s] very well done, and we can tell that they’ve worked on this for many, many hours on this in the studio. Practice makes perfect, as they say,” he said.

“I would say the same: hours, and hours, and hours, and hours, and hours! And then to come to this location and set the whole thing up, too,” Ms. Wiens said. “When you’re in the profession, you can see behind the scenes, and you know everything behind the scenes is also being done so wonderfully.”

Mr. Wiens commented on the mission to revive tradition. “I think it’s great. It’s good. We ourselves, we are strong Christians; [we have] a Christian belief, so obviously we believe in God, God is our Creator.”

“And there’s power in the arts ... doing art—and creativity, and brightness,” said Ms. Wiens.
“There is power in that. I’m not sure if they were saying in this story that that creative power comes from God, but that’s the worldview that I have and that I teach, too,” she said. “We have a creative spirit within us, and that’s how we can release our energy, our goodness into the world.”
Mr. Wiens spoke about their dance production. “We’re going to be doing a production, a dance performance ourselves in 2 months, and it’s based upon creation and it’s going to be called ‘In the Beginning.’ We’re going to have all the dancers do a dance on the story of creation from the biblical point of view.”
He described Shen Yun’s performance as “awesome, inspiring, and very professional. Well done.”

Couple Wants Freedom for the Chinese People

Dan and Mindy Hagedorn saw Shen Yun for the first time, at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, on April 1. “I think it’s fantastic,” Mr. Hagedorn said. “The attire, the dress, has been really great. The music—excellent. The subject matter—the best! More people need to hear it.”

Ms. Hagedorn also liked it. “I liked all of it. It was fantastic,” she said.

“The piano was good, piano and the tenor. That was really good,” Mr. Hagedorn added.

Mr. Hagedorn commented on the importance of bringing traditions into today’s modern world.

“It’s very important because freedom is what America’s all about. And to come into a place like Seattle in Washington State that doesn’t allow many freedoms any more, it’s important that we fight for them and keep them.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture.
That Shen Yun is banned in China, Mr. Hagedorn said, “I think that’s unacceptable. People have to fight for their freedoms in China, too.”

He said he would “absolutely” recommend Shen Yun to friends with this message: “As a message on freedom for the Chinese. Yes.”

Reporting by Sunny Chen, Frank Zhang, and Yvonne Marcotte.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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