MELBOURNE, Australia—Linguist Manalini Kane found herself in another world as she watched Shen Yun’s dancers’ elegance and sophistication unfold on the stage.
“The show was absolutely mesmerizing,” Kane said. She attended a Shen Yun Performing Arts Sunday matinee performance at Melbourne’s restored Regent Theatre, on Feb. 10.
“The costume was stunning. All the dancers were very elegant and sophisticated,” said Kane, a company founder and manager in her role as an intercultural communication consultant, English/EAL specialist.
With classical Chinese dance, the Shen Yun artists recount ancient myths and bygone heroes, showing scenes from celestial paradises to legends from classic novels like “Journey to the West.” The thousands-of-years-old classical Chinese dance has been passed down and refined over the dynasties.
Kane appreciated the dancers’ skills and the humor she experienced in one particular story-dance, saying the “skill level was the highest I could say. I could not imagine the kind of synchronization they managed to perform throughout every single dance—the monkey dance [‘The Queendom’ from ‘Journey to the West’] was just enjoyable.”
Kane was touched by the interaction between the dancers, with their props, and with the unique digital backdrop, which displays magical worlds and faraway places where Shen Yun’s dancers are able to move in and out of other worlds.
“I would say the fairies and clouds—that will linger on my mind, ” she said.
China was once known as the Celestial Empire, and its culture believed to be divinely inspired.
Kane could relate to Shen Yun’s display of traditional Chinese values like loyalty, filial piety, and veneration for the divine.
Watching the dances, she recalled the “spiritual aspects, because I have taught Chinese history, I could relate to some of the things, especially the dynasties. ... So, I could revise some of the memories through those dances,” she explained.
Kane saw stories about contemporary China, too, which enhanced her understanding. A couple of story-dances set in present day China show how the communist regime now suppresses the traditional Chinese values that were illustrated throughout each dynasty.
Kane noted Shen Yun is reviving traditional values.
“I think some of them we have possibly lost. But some of them we still have retained. And, I think through these dancers they have shown the value of those traditional thoughts—in terms of inner balance, inner peace, and spiritual attainment,” she said.
For the dancers, it is the traditions and spiritual connection that motivate them to excel, and it is the heart behind each movement of the dancer.
For Kane, the end of the performance came too soon.
“I would love to watch it again and again,” she said.
