PHOENIX—Mining company CEO David Stewart was looking for something extraordinary to watch when he found Shen Yun Performing Arts online. He booked two tickets—for himself and his wife—and after watching the performance at Phoenix’s Orpheum Theater, Shen Yun more than exceeded expectations.
“It is exceptional, just exceptional,” Stewart said on Feb. 20.
“[It was an] all-encompassing awesome experience.”
Spiritual Theme
Stewart, who founded and is CEO of Arizona-based Swallow Mining LLC, said he was most impressed by the spiritual theme running throughout the performance.The CEO felt the divinely-inspired culture shining through in the performance.
“It warms the heart, just witnessing it or being a part of it,” he said.
Stewart said it gave him a sense of hope.
“We do live in a rough world, there is a lot of stuff but there is goodness at the base of all of it,” he said.”
Good Over Evil
The theme of good prevailing over evil was also peppered throughout the program, particular in pieces depicting the suppression of people of faith in today’s China.Shen Yun shows how practitioners of spiritual practice Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured in China as part of a sweeping persecution that has lasted almost two decades. The Chinese Communist Party banned the practice after it surged in popularity in the late 1990s, with about 70 million people practicing in China.
Stewart said he was amazed that the performers had the courage to speak out about the issue, adding that it was impressive that “they do it with so much talent and beauty.”
Stewart’s wife Linda, a retired business owner, was also captivated by the performance, praising the beauty, grace, and radiance exuded by the dancers.
“I felt like standing up and being much more graceful myself,” she said.
“They way they made me feel was just so wonderful.”
Stewart said he now has a greater appreciation of Chinese culture, as well as Mongolian culture.
He said he had been studying Mongolian culture and was pleased to see it celebrated during the performance in the ethnic dance “Mongolian Cowboys.”
“I want to be a Mongolian cowboy in my next life, or maybe I already was...” Stewart mused.