STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Dancer and dance teacher Katarina Fischer was so inspired by Shen Yun Performing Arts’ performance in Stockholm last year that she decided to bring both her mother and her daughter this time. The venue, Cirkus, was filled with an enthusiastic crowd on Shen Yun’s final performance in Sweden this year on April 9.
“This is my second visit, and I’m still absolutely fascinated,” Ms. Fischer said after the Tuesday performance in Stockholm. “It was wonderful. Beautiful and professional.”
Classical Chinese dance has a history of several thousand years. By “soaking up profound wisdom from every era and dynasty, it has become a complete system of dance embodying traditional aesthetic principles,” according to the Shen Yun website.
Ms. Fischer described her impressions of the dancing this way:
“The feeling, the technique, the dancers’ professionalism, the way they dance from the heart … You can feel how there is a great culture behind this. It’s not merely choreography and technique, there is something grand behind all of it. I can’t quite explain what it is, but that’s what brought me back here.”
Ms. Fischer, being a trainer and teacher herself, said that she imagined it would take rigorous training to achieve the technical level of the dancers, but also something like meditation to achieve the calm and unity she felt the artists projected.
“You can see it in the dancers’ faces; making a beautiful movement is one thing, but they also show it from within, and with the calmness in their eyes. There is so much in it that I have to come back next year to try to see what it’s all about,” she said.
Although she referred to last year’s performance as “the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” this year’s performance further deepened the experience, and gave her something new to take home, namely “an amazing calm and peace in my heart.”
She also said that the Chinese culture presented in the show will be carried on into the future.
“There is a culture, something incredibly strong, which I think will live on for thousands of years. I’m glad to have experienced it,” she said.
Ms. Fischer’s mother, Jaderiga Malik, who is a skin therapist, was also a dancer in her youth, and she said that the performance moved her deeply.
In the opening dance, the Lord Buddha calls upon heavenly beings to come down to Earth and create a magnificent history for mankind.
“This was a powerful experience for me,” Ms. Malik said. “It was amazing. When it began, I actually started crying. So many emotions came over me.”
When recalling her experience of listening to erhu virtuoso Xiaochun Qi, Ms. Malik had tears in her eyes.
“She played this unusual instrument, it went straight to my heart, to my soul. It was great,” she said.
“I meditate, and I will meditate again to try to make this music stay in my heart. It is actually unforgettable,” Ms. Malik concluded.
Kasha Johnson, the daughter of Katarina Fischer, admitted to being “fascinated by all things Asian,” and was grasping for words to express what she felt about the performance.
“It was absolutely incredible. So, so beautiful. I don’t have words to describe it. What I just saw was simply incredible,” Ms. Johnson said.
“I have to say, you need to see this at least once in your life in order to understand what I’m trying to explain here, but I can’t explain it with words.”
She watched the dancers during the performance, how they coordinated and cooperated.
“I loved how they were completely focused,” she said. “They put so much energy and power into it, and you could see how they trusted each other 100 percent. Everyone knew what they were doing. Everything was perfect. I looked for an error, but I couldn’t find a single one. It really was perfect,” she said.
Ms. Fischer had a final reflection about the performance. “This is beautiful art made by people, or possibly made by something else. It is divinely inspired,” she said.
Reporting by NTD Television and Pirjo Svensson
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
