“Absolutely fantastic. I’ve never seen a show like this and I’ve [been] travelling around Asia for 20 years,” Cr. Chung said.

Cr. Chung attended the opening performance of Shen Yun’s 10-day tour of New Zealand. The St. James Theatre had been undergoing earthquake-strengthening renovations for nearly four years and Wellingtonians are now able to enjoy the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music performance once again. Shen Yun will be playing to sold-out audiences at all five performances in Wellington.

Cr. Chung said he admired the story-based dances.

“I … liked the scenes where the soldiers came out of the screen and jumped out of the screen and flew down from the sky. Just amazing and I really liked the dance with the ladies with the long sleeves,” he said.

At each performance, the audience is treated to classical, folk, and ethnic dancing. The dances bring to life 5,000 years of Chinese culture: colorful dynasties, popular and witty folk stories, comedies, and tales containing moral teachings.

“I’ve just never seen such skillful dancing before. They’re all so talented,” Cr. Chung said.

Shen Yun means the “beauty of divine beings dancing.” Ancient Chinese believed that their culture was divinely inspired and that artists looked to the heavens for divine inspiration.

“I really enjoyed it, having a live orchestra there makes all the difference. Very, very authentic,” Cr. Chung said.

“I had a meeting this morning with our arts and cultural people [in the Wellington City Council] and they were talking about the need to have arts. Arts is very, very important to get the different cultures in, and so I’m going to certainly recommend they come and see the show,” Cr. Chung said.

Shen Yun has eight companies that tour the world simultaneously, but Mr. Chung was appalled to hear that they are forbidden to perform in China.

“I think that’s terrible. I think that to actually ban performances like this is just really shocking, terrible,” Cr. Chung said.

“They’re so talented, just please carry on, just please go on developing these shows and having many shows. I’m just so impressed.”