LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Clarence Straham, Jr., investment banker with Crews and Associates, and Carlotta Straham, CEO of a company that manages charter schools, wished their dancer daughter had been with them for the Feb. 28 performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company at the Robinson Center Music Hall.
“Oh my god, if she could see this she would just be totally thrilled,” said Mrs. Straham. She is attending the University of Oklahoma on a dance scholarship, said her mother.
“This is wonderful,” said Mr. Straham. Along with his career in finance, he has pursued the arts, performing with Shuffles and Ballet II, the official school of Ballet Arkansas. “I got a chance to perform. I know the stage and I know a little bit about the dance.”
Mrs. Straham proudly said that her husband has been dancing with the school for two years. Their daughter studied with the school for 12 years, and the dance teachers impressed her because they became “like second mothers” to her daughter.
Mr. Straham said, with a big smile and shining eyes, that he loved “the energy, the energy, the movement. The telling of story. They can actually tell a story, without the narrators; you can totally feel and know the story without the narrators, they express everything.”
He said everything about the New York-based company moved him. “The entire show. It’s beautiful.”
He said the skills of the dancers were unbelievable.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will perform at Greenville’s Peace Center on March 1.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
