TAICHUNG, Taiwan—With flowers blossoming in the scenic city of Taichung, signaling the arrival of spring, local residents packed the JhungShan Auditorium on March 28, heralding a performing arts festival brought by Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company.
Seeing the performance for the second time was Xiao-Fang Fu, a popular local guqin virtuoso, who spoke emotionally and was simply lost for words to describe the beauty of the Shen Yun performance.
She said: “It was better than best. I was touched. Words could only describe the superficial beauty. … I am lost for words to describe the actual beauty. Each program was magnificent. It was so real that I felt like I was actually in each scene. The dance was very successful in showing the dance form.”
Classical Chinese dance has three main components, bearing, form and technical skill. Form refers to the hundreds of extremely intricate poses and movements that make up the vocabulary of the art form. Even though some poses look simple, they require full-body integration—the way the torso bends and rotates, the direction of the eyes, and the position of the fingers need to be coordinated in a precise way,” according to official Shen Yun website.
Mrs. Fu has recorded four albums and been honored with multiple awards, including Contemporary Classical-Chinese Musician of the Year 2009 and outstanding performance in the 2004 Chinese International Guqin Competition. She is also a professor of ikebana at Chinese Floral Arts Foundation, specialized in guqin, a silk string zitter, guzheng, a Chinese plucked zither, and she writes poetry.
With a temperament of a traditional Chinese lady, Mrs. Fu said slowly, “The form of the Chinese dance was elucidated clearly by the Shen Yun dance.”
She elaborated, saying that some of the most revered virtues of Chinese culture were portrayed by Shen Yun in a comprehensible manner. “We have all studied history. And the performance was a very authentic presentation,” she said.
Mrs. Fu said that she paid undivided attention to every program, and each had deeply touched her. “Without talking, the art of drama was exemplified through dancing. It was outstanding,” she said.
The Shen Yun Orchestra combines Western and Eastern instruments, a fact that amazed Mrs. Fu. She said, “Oh! Wonderful. Truly wonderful. When the thunderous symphony combined with the soothing lute, you felt as if it was talking to you. Everything was exquisite and superb.”
As a professional in string and plucked zithers, Mrs, Fu was mesmerized by the erhu solo performance by Xiaochun Qi. “Besides saying I was truly touched, I don’t know what else I could say to compliment [the wonderful performance].” She was visibly touched and excited about the performance.
Mrs. Fu was equally amazed by the originality of the hand-made costumes. “Wonderful,” she said. The masculine color for male performers was very bright and vibrant she said, adding that “the main performers [of each program] were visually stunning with colors separating them from others. Whether it was soft grace, or strong power, the performance was exquisite, very very exquisite.”
“Any further compliment would not be high enough praise to express the wonderfulness I felt,” Mrs. Fu said. After contemplating, Mrs. Fu commented, “It was like God had descended upon us. I felt like I was one of the performers. The dance and I had united as one. This is what I felt, this is exactly what I felt. Upon seeing it for the first time, I simply couldn’t hold back my tears.”
Reporting by De-Man Dai and Frank Fang.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will perform in seven cities in Taiwan until April 8 and then continue to top venues in Australia and New Zealand.
For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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