ATLANTA—Wealth manager by day, dance teacher by night, Julie Segal saw Shen Yun with a practiced choreographer’s eye. She said, “It was incredible” and she plans to expand her teaching repertoire, now that she has experienced Shen Yun’s classical Chinese dance. “I always pick up different moves and things for my kids,” she said.
“I teach dance: ballet and tap. That is why I really enjoyed it,” she said. She admired the lightness and perfect synchronization of the dancers. One of the most skillful and difficult things for a dancer to do is to land from a leap silently, and the artists in Shen Yun excel at that. “It was incredible, just incredible,” said Ms. Segal.
“They were very agile, very light. That was the one thing. They were very light on their feet. That is what I am always telling my kids, to be light,” she said, making a floating gesture with her hands. “If I can do it, if I can leap and come down quietly you (her students) can do it, since you weigh much less than I do,” she said, with a laugh.
Dancers often choose to sit in the upper levels, so that they can see the patterns of the choreography well. Ms. Segal and her group, which included two teenaged dancers, made that choice. “We were up in the Grand Tier so we had that view coming down. The costumes were gorgeous,” she said. According to the Shen Yun website, “Shen Yun’s costume artists collect countless designs of traditional attire, ranging from those of emperors, ministers, and generals to the everyday clothing of the common people. They use bright colors to tailor and recreate hundreds of new pieces each season.”
Beyond her artistic admiration, Ms. Segal said the dance The Power of Compassion touched her emotionally. “I got teary,” she said.
It tells a story set in contemporary China, in which “understanding and sincerity pave the way to an unexpected blessing,” according to the program.
Her friend Pam Hall, a travel agent, felt the same way. “I got teary at that part, actually.” Something about it resonated. “I was saying it over and over in my head, the title of that dance.”
Shen Yun is inspired by China’s 5,000 years of civilization, according to the program. “Values such as compassion and loyalty, kindness and bravery lie at the heart of Chinese culture.”
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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.
