DALLAS—“I thought it was amazing,” said Jorge Salas, vice president of Ryder Dedicated in the US Western Region, after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Jan. 2.
Mr. Salas, who has held a variety of executive positions in the automotive industry, experienced traditional Chinese culture through the New York-based Shen Yun for the first time.
Mr. Salas said he had not realized that the traditional culture presented by Shen Yun was not allowed in China under the current regime. Established in 2006 by artists from around the world, Shen Yun seeks to revive the divinely inspired culture once nearly lost under the communist regime in China today.
What impressed Mr. Salas most was the amount of synchronization throughout the entire performance. Aiding that synchronization is Shen Yun’s use of a state-of-the-art digital backdrop, which allows its dancers to transition seamlessly from stage to screen.
In addition, Shen Yun’s dancers use many props and elaborate costumes, such as the mythical character Ne Zha’s magical weapon, or the bright flowers and kerchiefs held by the girls of the Yao village in one dance.
Also in the audience was Jeff and Celeste Choi, who were touched by Shen Yun’s mission to bring traditional Chinese culture to the world.
“I got to see all this beautiful Chinese culture, and history of China, and a beautiful performance,” Mr. Choi said. “I was completely impressed.”
The passion in Shen Yun’s performers to revive an art despite the struggle in China today touched Mr. Choi.
Seeing Shen Yun at the beginning of the new year, Mr. Choi, a networking security consultant for companies like General Atomics and Tesla, said, “It gives me a new hope and outlook to even better myself.”
“The performers were world class,” he added. “On top of that, the story behind that, the message that they were trying to show, overall it was fantastic.”
Mrs. Choi connected deeply with the original Chinese lyrics sang by the bel canto solo vocalists. A line from soprano Jia Ning Hsu’s song in particular—“truth unlocks memory”—greatly impacted Mrs. Choi.
“You can just learn so much from truth,” she said. The message, she added, is a universal one that binds all humans together. It also reminded her to remain positive in the face of difficult struggles.
The couple attended the the performance with their friend Dejuanae Siders, who sensed the deeper meanings in many aspects of the performance as well.
Mr. Siders was touched by Shen Yun’s use of the creative to touch on an issue such as freedom of expression, especially considering that the performance is not allowed in China.
“I just think it unlocks a lot of life’s lessons,” she said.
Reporting by Rich Rangel, John Chang, and Catherine Yang
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
