HOUSTON—Lee Shuchart, senior vice president of Western Litigation, and friends Lori and John Rino attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston, Dec. 28.
Mrs. Rino had heard about New York-based Shen Yun for years and wanted to see a performance, and finally got a chance when the friends decided to go for her birthday.
“Awesome, fantastic, beautiful colors,” Mrs. Rino said. Mrs. Rino said it was very moving to see the long history of classical Chinese dance, having learned from the performance that many art forms originated from classical Chinese dance.
According to Shen Yun’s website, classical Chinese dance has been passed down for thousands of years, soaking up the wisdom in every dynasty. It is a vast and independent dance system embodying traditional aesthetic principles with hundreds of unique postures and movements.
“It was so beautiful and the storytelling was so great,” Ms. Shuchart said.
Shen Yun was established in 2006 to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through the performing arts. As the emcees explained, China is the only place Shen Yun hasn’t been able to perform, as the current regime is against the traditional Chinese values in the art forms Shen Yun presents.
“The fact that it can’t be performed in China but it can be performed here is also amazing and spectacular that our country is able to embrace the Chinese culture so that people from China can share their culture with others even though they know they can’t in their own country,” Ms. Shuchart said. “That’s fantastic to all of us.”
The revival of culture was touching for many of the audience members in Houston that night. Also in attendance was Mr. Spyros Lazaratos, a geophysicist for ExxonMobil, who said Shen Yun’s mission was very valuable.
“It was certainly very spiritual,” Mr. Lazaratos said, speaking of traditional Chinese culture. “It was a connection to ideas in the past, spiritual values ... that was very interesting.”
“Everything was fantastic, it was very graceful,” Mr. Lazaratos said. “Every one of the [dances] was very graceful and very new to me.”
Reporting by Sally Sun and Catherine Yang
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.
