DETROIT—Robert Campbell surprised his wife Kathleen by not telling her where they were going for the evening out. The couple attended the opening night of Shen Yun Performing Arts’ run in Detroit on Feb. 6.
Ms. Campbell truly enjoyed it: “The dances were extraordinarily beautiful and very harmonious.”
Shen Yun, based in New York, brings 5,000 years of divinely inspired civilization to the world with traditional music and dance.
Ms. Campbell, a retired teacher, felt Shen Yun’s mission is “a great idea because here in the West, we have so little knowledge of anything beyond Western culture [so] that we really appreciate it.”
“I was particularly interested in some of the culture, some of the background of the culture, and just the color, and the artistry of the performance is what really drew me to it. It was wonderful,” said Mr. Summers, an architect.
Both found the spiritual aspect of the performance interesting. “As for the spiritual aspects of it, I thought it was—the opening was particularly interesting where the people came down to Earth and I am also interested in reincarnation, and I thought it was interesting that that was touched upon,” Ms. Campbell said.
“I was very, very much taken with the folk tale kind of things of the Chinese culture and the touches of the Buddhist philosophy that are behind it. That always interested me, and it was nice to see it performed again with such majesty and such color and music,” Mr. Summers said.
“The costumes were extraordinary and so vividly colorful—really, really liked it,” he added.
“Every costume in a Shen Yun performance is presented with brilliant colors, displaying a splendid spectacle,” according to the company’s website.
“It is good to see the ancient culture of the Chinese being not just preserved but presented,” he said, in light of the fact that the performance is not allowed in China.
In fact it is only because the company operates in the free climate of New York that the ancient traditions of China’s past can flourish. The communist regime has sought to dismantle traditional culture since the Cultural Revolution.
Reporting by Julie Song and Sharon Kilarski
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
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.
