WASHINGTON—David Cohen, a financial planner, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on Jan. 31, and in an interview afterwards said that he found it both instructive and beautiful.
“Oh, I enjoyed it very much,” he said.
“It was a nice blend of music and choreography. That music was very sensuous, [producing] the visionary kinds of feelings you get.” He said that the dancing and costumes appeared to be integrated with the music. “I was really intrigued by that.”
He drew attention to the dance “Phoenix Fairies”—where phoenix maidens soar with celestial grace, their skirts shimmering against the night sky in a secluded, faraway paradise—as deserving of particular approbation. “It was just very enjoyable… the colors and the movements. I found it moving, that performance,” Mr. Cohen said.
Overall, Mr. Cohen found Shen Yun “very educational.” He said “I’m never exposed to that aspect of Chinese culture, to see their spiritual origins and how they expressed it through their culture for all those thousands of years. It was interesting to get a glimpse of that through the dancing in the performances.”
The dances helped him see the performers’ love of their culture, he said.
“It’s something to see, because you get to really see a culture that we’re not so familiar with,” he said as counsel to peers who may be considering purchasing tickets.
Mr. Cohen concluded: “To experience that kind of symmetry, integration of spiritual ideas with costume and dance and song, I think it’s a unique way to see it. I don’t think we see that in our culture.”
With reporting by New Tang Dynasty Television
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun New York Company is performing in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center Opera House from Jan 30 – Feb 3 For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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