LOS ANGELES—Seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts dancers execute one effortless move after another, Shiva Bagheri was on the edge of her seat, stunned and amazed, thinking “wow, wow, wow.”
“It’s awesome,” she said of the elegant feats. “These women are so awesome, these men are so strong, and they make it look so effortless.”
Without a dance background, Bagheri said, one might think the fluidity of the dance simple. But Bagheri is a longtime dancer and now dance instructor at her own studio, and the abilities of these dancers blew her away.
“They won’t understand the difficulty,” she said. “I mean, the moves they are doing and the precision, even the fingertips. I’m looking at the fingertips and they’re all precise. And the head movements and everything is just amazing. I don’t even know what—astounding. I don’t know another word to describe it, but it’s awesome.”
Bagheri pointed out the difficulty of moving as quickly as the dancers did while walking heel-to-toe, and how light they were to seem as if they were floating through difficult flips that would normally look and sound heavy even for some experienced dancers.
“They’re doing it like they’re doing it on a cloud,” Bagheri said. “And it’s ridiculously, ridiculously good.”
Shen Yun dancers are New York-trained, as the company was formed in 2006 by artists from around the world who wanted to revive the genuine traditional Chinese culture, through the arts.
Today, the company is the foremost classical Chinese dance company in the world, touring globally each year to present this ancient, divinely inspired culture to a modern audience.
“Divine” is an apt descriptor,” Bagheri said after seeing the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on April 12.
“It’s so beautiful and angelic, I feel like I’m in heaven watching this,” Bagheri said. “If I go to heaven, this is probably what the dancers are going to look like.”
“Heavenly, divine, spiritual---and funny, too. There is some humor in there,” Bagheri added, describing some of the scenes from the story-based dances throughout the program. Ancient Chinese history and legend alike is brought alive through comedy and tragedy and a beautiful production.
“Everything is beautiful. The music is beautiful, the sets are beautiful, it’s just a magical experience,” Bagheri said. “Everything is just gorgeous, the whole thing is a heavenly experience, you know? And coming from a dancer, I really appreciate it.”
The artist in her was soaking up inspiration from the production she saw on stage. Bagheri took note of the position of the hands and feet; the turns they did that let the long skirts billow out just so; and the beautiful, long “water sleeves” the dancers made fly in catch-and-release movements.”
“The whole thing is just so gorgeous,” Bagheri said.
