LOS ANGELES—Shen Yun Performing Arts had producer Stan Blits’s full attention every moment of the performance. The beauty of the bright and colorful production, combined with the eye-opening content was enlightening for Blits.
“It’s not anything I knew about before,” Blits said during intermission of a performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on April 13.
“It’s fantastic so far. It’s amazing and very interesting,” Blits said of a story-dance set in contemporary China. “I think it’s important for a show that’s very beautiful and also very poignant.”
Blits was referring to the fact that Shen Yun, a company whose mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture, is not allowed to perform in China today. When the emcees bring up this point, many in the audience even gasp.
New York-based Shen Yun’s performance of 20 vignettes of classical Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dances, story-based dances, and musical soloists bring the story from the origins of this divinely inspired culture to the present day.
Why Shen Yun is banned in China is soon clear, as a dance set in contemporary China shows the communist regime’s continued oppression of freedoms. The Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s—the violent upheaval of society and destruction of architecture and artifacts—is a distant memory to most. The reality is, the Chinese Communist Party’s intention to eradicate the traditional culture and replace it with its own has never gone away.
“I didn’t realize that there was so much persecution going on over there. I suppose that in the back of my mind I’ve heard about it somewhere, but I didn’t know that it was this bad and that this was still happening,” said Blits, a television producer known for co-creating the “Price Is Right” gameshow series.
“It makes me very sad and for the people over there also who need to see this,” Blits said, before describing the contemporary story-dance that had so moved him. It moved through loss and then hope through faith, and ultimately it was “a very beautiful story.”
“I would say that they are conveying a beautiful message and that it’s done in a beautiful way and that it’s not too imposing. Just exactly the way it’s supposed to be,” Blits said.
“Yes the storytelling is beautifully done,” Blits said. “It’s like a very classical form of art. It’s just fantastic.”
“I love it. Music always goes to my heart anyways, so whenever I listen to that my heart gets very happy,” Blits said.
“I think it’s something that definitely everyone should see.”
