NEW YORK—Lisa Petri, who runs the Petri School of Irish Dancing with her sister, experienced Shen Yun Performing Arts on April 27.
“Absolutely gorgeous,” she said, after seeing Shen Yun at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater.
Ms. Petri’s school has over 140 dancers and has had dancers who trained at the school appear at Lincoln Center as well as other well-known venues such as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. Ms. Petri started dancing in 1973 and competed for the next 18 years, winning the U.S. Eastern Regional Dancing Championship twice, and a medal at the 1989 Word Championship in Ireland.
New York-based Shen Yun tours the world with a mission of reviving the 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. At the heart of the performance is classical Chinese dance, an ancient and highly difficult dance form that has developed through the ages.
The aspect of the performance that caught Ms. Petri’s eye the most was the handmade, silk costumes.
“It was amazing to see the way costumes change everything,” she said.
The costumes include Han Chinese clothing, heavenly regalia, and ethnic Chinese costumes. Along with classical Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dance is featured, including dances from the Mongolian and Yi ethnic groups.
Ms. Nicolette Crapanzano, who has been a ballet dancer for 12 years, also enjoyed the performance, along with her mother Jola.
The younger Ms. Crapanzano said that she was impressed by how athletic the dancers were, especially with how “very powerful” the male dancers were.
Ms. Jola Crapanzano said that she and her daughter loved the performance.
She also said she enjoyed seeing the athletic dancers, including the flips, turns, and tumbling techniques, and the “beautiful, beautiful costumes.”
Reporting by NTD Television, Pamela Tsai, and Ryan Jeffries
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Shen Yun Performing Arts is performing at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center through April 28.
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.
