BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Ron Carlson, a retired vice president of operations for a chemical company, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the BJCC Concert Hall on April 22. He brought three of his grandchildren to watch the performance.

“It’s amazing! So colorful,” Carlson said. “It’s not only the colors but also the vibrancy of the movements, and the athleticism is amazing. The girls were just talking about how [the female dancers] could put their foot up by their head and do the sideways cartwheels. It was very exciting.”

Shen Yun’s animated 3D backdrop plays an important role in the dances.

People attending Shen Yun have described the performance as a cultural and spiritual experience, and the cultural aspect resonated most with Carlson.

“You know, we’ve heard about a lot of the treatment in China today, about some of the minorities, minority cultures, minority religions, and so this really amplifies that this is still going on,” he said. “It is a kind of a spiritual feeling with all the dance and the sounds and the music and even some of the instruments I’m not familiar with.”

Ed liked the show. “I’m not an artist but I love the light. The ladies particularly seemed to weigh nothing. They were so light on their feet and so feminine and so gentle and appealing. It was a very pleasant sight, pleasant experience to watch this.

“The acrobatics, the tumbling, the things they did seemed almost superhuman,” he added. “I don’t see how they did [it]. Their athletic ability was obvious and it was very enjoyable.”

He said the performance “gives you a happy feeling. I wish I could do something like that. I can’t.”

Brett said he liked the “sense of Chinese tradition.”

“One thing I didn’t expect but I’m not displeased with it is the information. I call it information on what’s going on in China: the abuse, the oppressive conduct. What the people of the Falun Gong are experiencing over there, it’s pitiful,” he said. “And you need to continue telling that story. The people of America, the people of the world, need to know what’s going on.”

Brett liked the dances. “I don’t know that I can pick out a single special moment but some of the costumes and dancing, particularly from the women, were elegant and flowing. It was very nice.”

He liked the water sleeve dance. “That was very enjoyable. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I don’t know that I necessarily think of water but I understand the connection.”

Ed liked how the backdrop interacted with the performers. He liked the “interactive part of the show, how the screen interacts with the people. I thought that was marvelous. It was something I’ve never seen before. You have a person and suddenly it’s a screen figure and vice versa,” he said.