WASHINGTON—Dr. John Lenczowski, founder and president of The Institute of World Politics, was among the enthusiastic audience on Opening Night of internationally-acclaimed Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center Opera House on Wednesday evening, March 21.
Dr. Lenczowski had words of praise for the New York-based performing arts company. He said: “I thought it was wonderful, it was beautiful. The dancing was beautiful, the music was beautiful, and there was a very imaginative link between the digital background and the performance on stage, and I very much appreciated the classical Chinese dancing.”
Before founding the Institute of World Politics, Dr. Lenczowski served in the State Department in the Bureau of European Affairs. He was special adviser to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs and was director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council; serving as an adviser to President Reagan.
Dr. Lenczowski said, “I was amazed that I was seeing political and moral truth, to see the truth about the communists, in a major artistic performance in the United States, is a rare thing, a very rare thing.”
Classical Chinese dance, an East-West full orchestra, inspiring world-class singers, hundreds of brilliant hand-made costumes, and a breathtaking digital projection is art in its full splendor. Shen Yun draws upon 5,000 years of civilization, each dance having its own theme, its own story, and its own ethnic, regional or dynastic grounding. The subjects depicted in the stories in the performance range from historical figures, mythical beings, to the suppression of freedom of belief and present-day Falun Dafa practitioners in China, according to Shen Yun’s website.
Shen Yun, which literally means ’the beauty of divine beings dancing,' was established in 2006 in New York, with the mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. After more that 60 years of Communist rule and especially after the Cultural Revolution, Shen Yun’s mission is especially important. Such a mission inspires every aspect of a Shen Yun performance, endowing it with an incredibly uplifting spirit. The audience members are taken on an epic journey into the heart of a divinely inspired culture.
Dr. Lenczowski added, “The human cost of communism in China is one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind and more people should know about it, and the fact that [Shen Yun] are telling the truth and that [they] are accompanying it with beauty, is something that is good and that’s what the ancient philosophers have taught us, that there is a relationship between beauty, truth and goodness.”
Dr. Lenczowski thanked the performers and said: “I was delighted to be here. It was a dramatic and beautiful performance that is a very rare cultural contribution to the United States and to the world. So thank you, thank you it was a privilege to be here.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Sophia Bronwen.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will perform at The Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington, D.C., through April 1.
For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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