TORUN, Poland–Mr. Jacek Paweł Godlewski bought his wife a Shen Yun ticket as a birthday gift.

“My wife is a physician and I am an engineer so we are busy with routine things every day but the time we spent here opened us for the spirit that has shaped the Chinese culture,” said Mr. Godlewski who attended the Jan. 21 matinee of Shen Yun with his wife Ms. Aneta Adamiak-Godlewska.

“It also shows how much power lies in it, how much [Chinese] still have to do to resurrect this power.”  Mr. Godlewski continued.  “The dance is also something that allows man to express himself, it releases what lives somewhere inside a person. I am talking not only about the artists themselves, ...  our interaction with what was happening on stage was extraordinary.

“For example—it is not always the case that the art form of conveying a message occupies me to such an extent that I will immerse in it. However, today it was such a situation that I really immersed myself in it. A mass of colors in this drab world—this is something wonderful,” he said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance and music company, which aims to revive China’s rich culture which has been all but destroyed after decades of communist rule in China.

“The fact that someone has fallen in love with this instrument, ... like this lady [who played erhu], [the fact that] someone chose it from the pool of instruments and tried to convey emotion–this is again a birth and an expression of what is within a person,” Mr. Godlewski explained.

“You need to first settle in this culture, you need to get it out from within, find these roots, and only then pass it on through this instrument. I think that it is a fantastic hit,” he said.

“I think that’s all that happened on the stage, such a spiritual depth, I think it is passed [to us] no matter what we really believe in. So it was a special, really special [performance],” Mrs. Adamiak-Godlewska said.

Mr. Godlewski explained that “for him such values ​​that are deeply embedded in a person or, in general, in a human being– they always have a root in something bigger or are born from something bigger.”

He said that in his opinion, “it is really about discovering what is the universal truth”  or the truth that always defends itself regardless of are what philosophy or religion follow those who appear on the stage.

This universal truth is greater than this earthly truth because it also applies to a certain universe, Mr. Godlewski said.

Mr. Godlewski saw Shen Yun as a celebration shared with the audience, “It is about looking for a universal truth that frees man so he can live his life to the fullest, and precisely enjoy being alive—celebrate the joy.

Since she lives in another city she took a train early morning on the day of the performance and in six hours arrived in Torun.

“It was worth coming,” Ms. Chmielowska concluded.