FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Shen Yun “just makes you feel really good, very relaxed, very, very comfortable,” Mark Slaughter said. He and his wife, Maura, along with Charles and Laurie Mucciolo, attended the evening performance, Feb. 1, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Slaughter said the performance “brings things back into perspective, as opposed to the all the craziness that goes on now.” “When you see something like this, it makes you just sit back, relax, and enjoy.
“[It] brings back a lot of the Chinese tradition, and there’s a lot of meaning that we can learn from today,” said Mr. Slaughter, vice president of human resources for an international company.
The others in the party also remarked on the feeling Shen Yun gave them.
“The colors, the feeling, the liveliness of it, was spectacular,” Mrs. Slaughter said. “And the dancers were beautiful—every one of them—just beautiful people.”
She said the dance The Lotus Fairies was special for her. This dreamlike piece extols the virtues of the lotus, a symbol of purity and divine perfection, according to the program book. “Dancers holding long silken fans glide across the stage like celestial fairies in flight. Their soft steps are never hurried … as they scatter a fragrance of serenity from the heavens above,” the program reads.
Shen Yun artists—the entire team—find inspiration in the divine. “For them, this spiritual connection is motivation for striving to excel, is the heart behind each movement of the dancer and each note of the musician. It is why audiences can feel there is something different about Shen Yun,” the Shen Yun website states.
Peace and Harmony
“I really enjoyed the underlying message of peace and harmony and respect for life,” said Charles Mucciolo, director of landscape architecture for a builder. “I learned a little bit more about the culture.”
“We enjoyed it a lot, and I was really surprised that so much of the story could not be told in China because of the restrictions. That was kind of sad for me,” Mr. Mucciolo said.
Through political campaigns like the Cultural Revolution, the communist regime in China has all but destroyed the traditional culture—its values, beliefs, artistic traditions, temples, and priceless artifacts. One cannot see Shen Yun or anything like it in China today.
“The history and the reverence of their whole culture is amazing,” Mrs. Slaughter said.
“The culture we saw tonight was just spectacular,” Mr. Slaughter said. He said he would tell their friends and family about Shen Yun: “Come see it, and learn!”
After today’s Fort Lauderdale performance, Shen Yun will move on to St. Petersburg, with four engagements at the Mahaffey Theater, Feb. 2 through 8, and then on to Fort Myers, Feb. 9 and 10.
Reporting by Edie Bassen and Louise Rothman
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.
