WEST PALM BEACH, Florida—Being in the fashion industry for decades, couturier Lloyd Klein has the eye for beauty. When he saw Shen Yun Performing Arts for the first time he was just captivated by how beautiful everything was on stage.
“First of all the mix of colors is beyond amazing,” Klein said. “I wished I could take some pictures because it is so beautiful, the colors, the mix of the colors, the details of the costumes are amazing. I thought they were very interesting that the performance, the dance is extremely beautiful and the men and the women dance in a very creative way.”
Klein is a well-known fashion designer whose designs have appeared on many red-carpets in Hollywood. His impressive clientele includes legendary icons like Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, Faye Dunaway, Cindy Crawford and many more. He was awarded the prestigious Fashion Icon award in 2014 and his collections have appeared on runways in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.
Klein said he has waited three years to see Shen Yun and finally found the opportunity at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts at West Palm Beach, Florida, during the matinee on April 16.
New York-based Shen Yun is in the midst of its 2019 tour with a mission to bring back genuine Chinese traditional culture to the modern world. Through about 20 vignettes, Shen Yun takes audience members on a journey to different eras, regions, and into the worlds of famous characters in history and literature.
The fashion designer said he enjoyed the experience exploring different parts of Chinese culture.
“I loved the Mongolian scene, that was so beautiful; the Restaurant was very well done, the prison ... that part was a little bit shocking to me,” he said, referring to a story-based piece portraying real-life human rights abuses in modern China, the persecution of Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, teaches “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance” and has helped over 100 million Chinese people today understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture. But the Chinese regime banned the practice in 1999 and has since continued to systematically persecute Falun Gong adherents in China. People who are caught practicing the discipline in China face severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, and even death.
These stories portray themes like spiritual devotion, the benevolence of gods, good and evil retribution, and the search for the meaning of life, according to the company’s website. Such values are foundational to traditional Chinese culture and are not political in nature.
“[I]t’s a sad reality, it’s very sad, and it’s very hurtful. And it’s, I know it’s the reality and it’s disturbing,” Klein said.
He added that he understood that Shen Yun wanted more people to understand more about the message of the persecution and praised Shen Yun for achieving it in a “very elegant way.”
“What I have to say to the performers, to the artists, to the designers that everything is done in a very elegant way—in a very good way,” Klein said.
“For me, [Shen Yun] is a symbol of elegance, it’s amazing.”
