“It’s amazing. I’ve really never seen anything like it. I was so impressed with both the high level of dance and also the ... spiritual message that [they] are bringing.”
“There was a story about [a] couple that is killed for expressing their beliefs. For me, what I understood happened, was the baby grows up to be the young woman that is also then persecuted. And that really resonated, meant a lot to me.”
“[The dancers] are amazing. I loved them all. I really loved the drums in the last piece. That was unbelievable. The whole thing was really great, the commitment to the quality of it too. You can just feel the level of effort and practice and time that’s put into it. I think we all just naturally really appreciate anything that [people] put a lot of effort and time into what they’re doing.”
“[The music] is really beautiful too. It’s really interesting. It’s something different, I think for me, and for most of us here in California. We don’t get a lot of exposure to that, so it’s nice to get that unique sound. Obviously eastern or Chinese music is very, very different from western music. It uses a lot of different tones and qualities. It’s great to have the opportunity to hear it live.”
“[The singer] obviously has a beautiful voice. It was really nice to be able to see the lyrics on screen and to really feel the importance of [the] message. I think I could hear the people really feeling that too, as they were reading that. Wow, we all come from a divine place, and regardless of your religious belief or spiritual beliefs, I believe that too, that we all have that essentially good and meaningful quality to us. No political group or ruling body should get in they way of us expressing that.”
“We just so appreciate [Shen Yun] coming here and exposing our local community to what [they’re] doing and sharing that with us ... [We] really appreciate the way that [Shen Yun is] trying to make change with a very positive, creative, artistic way of sharing [a] message.”
“I don’t know as much as I like to know about Chinese culture, and I certainly didn’t know the spiritual aspect, but I was getting a lot of that from tonight’s performance for sure. So it was definitely very informative for me. I am here with a young high school student, and I think it’s been really informative for her too, and obviously all the folks that are here tonight.”
“I think that regardless of your ethnic background or political or spiritual beliefs, anyone standing up for what they believe in I think benefits society ... We have that idea that we are built on religious freedom and spiritual freedom, and even though we haven’t always been able to hold ourselves to that ideal, that’s still our ideal ... I think that people here in the United States will hopefully pick up on that message, and not only be supportive of what [Shen Yun is] doing specifically, but be supportive what anyone is doing when they just want to express their own political, spiritual or religious beliefs.”
“I could talk for an hour. It’s all amazing. Well as you can see, I love costumes, so I loved all the costumes on stage, and just the commitment to the high quality of the costumes and the perfection of the moves. I didn’t see one person making one mistake the whole time. So you can see the commitment to the message and the commitment to the dance, and the commitment to the music, and the commitment to the costumes and the whole presentation. It’s just unbelievably impressive.”
