MELBOURNE, Australia—The final Melbourne performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts World Company touched the hearts of many with the beauty of its music and dance at the Melbourne Arts Centre, State Theatre, on Feb. 24.
For friends Christine Fitzsimmons and Particia Ngai, Shen Yun is something they will remember for a very long time.
Based in New York, Shen Yun has classical Chinese dance at its heart, but includes a blended orchestra of traditional Chinese and classical Western instruments, solo performances and a state-of-the-art digitally animated backdrop and handmade costumes. Shen Yun delivers a complete theatrical experience.
“Sophisticated dance techniques, an orchestra joining instruments from both the East and West, beautiful costumes, and a stunning back drop—this is Shen Yun at first glance,” the Shen Yun website states. “But digging deeper, one discovers a sea of traditional Chinese culture. Mortals and divine beings merge on stage as one. Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience.”
For Ms. Fitzsimmons, with a stay at home career, this was a very rare treat, an experience words could not capture.
“I just thought there was such elegance, such grace, such beauty and colour. Amazing! Just absolutely beautiful!” she said.
“The way they just sort of had their grace, they just sort of floated across the stage. The women, just everything. Indescribable, indescribable, I would call it. It’s just beautiful.”
China, once known as The Divine Land, was believed to be a place where deities and mortals coexisted, and moreover, that the divine transmitted the culture to humankind.
Ms. Fitzsimmons said she is a Christian, and what she experienced at the Shen Yun performance was something definitely divine.
“I felt the presence of the Lord in that house [State Theatre],” she said. “I actually felt the presence of, as people would say, the spiritual being. I actually felt it, and yes it was beautiful.”
“It was like a soft dew fell upon me in different parts of the stage show. It was just like this presence took hold of you, just took you into that place, into that realm. It was just spiritual, a very spiritual moment.”
Ms. Fitzsimmons said she would highly recommended Shen Yun to all because of the “beauty, grace, and just love, just this love, unconditional love that seemed to flow.”
Shen Yun Portrays Authentic Chinese Culture
Ms. Ngai, previously from Malaysia, is now retired. As an ethnic Chinese she appreciated Shen Yun’s depiction of 5,000 years of Chinese history and culture of the myths and legends through the medium of music and dance.
“It really gives a history, the more authentic many, many years of history. We don’t always see that,” she said. “It does bring in a lot of the beliefs, religion and practice, and the dancers are beautiful.”
She also saw a spiritual aspect in the performance originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. “These ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture,” the website states.
Ms. Ngai saw aspects of Taoism and Buddhist history in it.
She said Shen Yun is “Beautiful, everything is beautiful. Excellent!”
Reporting by NTD Television and Leigh Smith
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.
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.
