LOS ANGELES—Shen Yun Performing Arts’ revival of traditional Chinese arts at The Music Center Saturday evening touched the hearts of Vincent and Cecilia Jeffries.
“Oh, it is wonderful. And it is outstanding,” said Mr. Jeffries, a sociologist.
“The message is outstanding,” added Mrs. Jeffries, a music teacher. “The message that honesty and truth, beauty and history should be part of life, which will help us reach heaven, which is our goal with divine protection.”
The Shen Yun Orchestra combines traditional Chinese instruments with a classical Western orchestra for a truly unique instrumentation. As a music teacher, Mrs. Jeffries said the music was “out of this world” and she wished she could share that with her students.
“The orchestration is beautiful and the combination of the orchestra and the Chinese instruments was just a perfect blend,” she said. “And the combinations in the range of sound and tone color was perfect, just beautiful.”
“It was all too good,” she exclaimed, describing the overall production. “I thought the background enhanced very much of what was being done,” she added. The digital backdrops transports the audience into another realm, according to Shen Yun’s website, with scenery from imperial courtyard dynasties ago to current-day Tiananmen Square serving as settings for the different stories being told through the traditional Chinese arts.
“And I was struck by people not being afraid to saying there is more to reality than what you see with your eyes, and it is worth standing up for,” Mrs. Jeffries continued. “There was so much in that, it would be difficult to pick up one particular episode, song or dance. Wow, I am greatly impressed. Thank you for having it,” Mrs. Jeffries said.
Mrs. Jeffries added that she enjoyed learning about classical Chinese dance, and that the difficult jumping and flipping techniques she saw on stage originate from this art form.
“It is beautiful and I think both my husband and I enjoyed the fact that they brought in the Chinese dance and its relation to what we have today,” she said.
Mrs. Jeffries also thought the costumes were “incredible,” mentioning the sleeves on the women’s dresses, and how the male dancers leapt. “I would greatly recommend this to all of my friends to see something they wouldn’t believe that can be humanly done.”
For the couple, the show was not only visually spectacular, but also resonated with their beliefs. Shen Yun presents traditional Chinese values from 5,000 years of divinely bestowed culture, showing the principles of benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, and respect for the heavens through the arts.
“There is such an inclination in today’s world to be saturated with the here and now, and with the pleasure of here and now, and not being afraid to step on people mercilessly,” Mrs. Jeffries explained. “This brings out that there is more perfection in joy and peace by being honest, compassionate and merciful and allowing people to start over again.”
“And to trust in powers higher than ourselves, which is something that we forget in today’s society, that we are not alone in our struggle to face our problems and the evils that surround us,” she continued.
“It is a must-see,” Mrs. Jeffries said. Her husband agreed: “It is very worthwhile.”
Reporting by Gary Du and Cathering Yang.
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will next perform in San Diego Jan 19-22.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3WTKCEA4tE[/video]
