Makeup Artist Captivated by Visual Richness

ST. LOUIS—The elegant Bezemes Family Theater, Lindenwood’s J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, is an ideal venue for the world-renowned Shen Yun Performing Arts performances. A thunderous standing ovation ended the Feb. 12 evening performance. Mr. Moore, a businessperson, and his wife, Ms. Nelson, a makeup artist with a dance background, got tickets because they saw a brochure. “The brochures were just so visually rich, and we just thought it’d be something that would be very visually captivating and beautiful. We haven’t gone wrong,” Ms. Nelson said.

Ms. Nelson found that the content as well as the visual beauty touched her heart. She said she did not know about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China, “I wasn’t aware so much of the persecution. I wasn’t aware of that at all—I was aware of other persecutions, but I wasn’t aware of the religious [persecution].”

The former dancer supported that part of the program. “I think it’s wonderful. The world needs to know. I’m very saddened, it makes my heart cry.”

Two dances in the performance tell contemporary stories about the persecution of Falun Dafa. Ms. Nelson strongly values freedom of belief, “In the United States of America, we were based on our religious freedom. And for us to see something like that—it’s heartbreaking,” she said. Mr. Moore was also moved. He said, “It’s very touching.”

From a professional perspective as a dancer, Ms. Nelson said, “Everything is stunning. Their choreography is completely amazing. Everybody is 100 percent accurate. I have been trained in ballet and dance my whole life—so many different cultural dances—and everybody’s doing an amazing job.” She began studying dance as a small child. She gave her professional evaluation of the show, “Everything has been perfect. The costumes are beautiful.”

Ms. Nelson is also a makeup artist, and she offered her opinion, “The makeup is beautiful. The music is phenomenal.” Mr. Moore said he admired how well coordinated all the elements were, and Ms. Nelson said, “Yes, very coordinated. Very phenomenal—just out of this world.”

Both enjoyed the Tibetan Dance of Praise. “Very good,” said Mr. Moore. Ms. Nelson agreed, “Very exciting. Very, very beautiful,” she added. Each spoke of the flowers in the dances. Mr. Moore said, “I like the yellow flower. I thought that was really enlightening.”

With reporting by Edelyn Xie

  For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org