NEW YORK—Harald Einsmann, former President of Procter and Gamble for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and currently on the Board of Directors of Harman International thought that Shen Yun Performing Arts was fabulous.
“Let me tell you. Number one, the dances are fabulous. The technology with the projection is fabulous,” he said. He watched the April 28, performance of Shen Yun at at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, together with his wife Elke, who also thought the performance was beautiful.
“The music ... especially the Chinese music, it’s so ... such a balance,” she said, adding that “everybody must like it.”
New York-based Shen Yun came together in 2006 with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture with dance, music, and a digitally animated backdrop.
Classical Chinese dance, a form of dance that enables very expressive dance pieces, is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance, along with ethnic and folk dance (such as Mongolian and Tibetan dance), and story-based dance. The dancers are adorned with handmade silk costumes and accompanied by digital backdrops and an orchestra that melds both classical Western and Chinese instruments.
It was the complete image combining into one expression that impressed Mr. Einsmann most: “It’s beautiful, the pictures are all beautiful. And they all speak for themselves.”
Bob Brunner, Vice President and head of U.S. operations at Nigerian Airline Arik hit upon a similar theme. “The mix between using the screen, to using the dance, to the costuming, the way it all brought together the storyline which was the message, [it was] very powerful,” he said.
For his wife Karen Brunner, Shen Yun was a “fantastic eye opener into a great culture.”
This year’s performance features 22 different pieces as well as traditional songs. “In less than ten minutes each, Shen Yun dance recount ancient myths, bygone heroes, or celestial paradises,” according to the Shen Yun website.
“I thought it was very interesting seeing this was ancient Chinese but you could definitely see where other dancing has come from based on this. I thought that was great,” she said.
Barbara Sedlin, the owner of ArTreasury, a specialist dealer of antique Asian and Middle Eastern rugs, liked Shen Yun so much that she even wants to try the style of dance herself.
“I’d like to try it myself. I like the dance and I know it takes a lot of training, but it would be fun to try it,” she said, enjoying the complete performance. “It’s very elegant, very graceful… and I like the costuming very much.”
Reporting by Pamela Tsai, NTD Television and Valentin Schmid
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three 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.
