GOLD COAST, Australia—Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company opened the Australian leg of its 2015 World Tour with a matinee performance at The Arts Centre Gold Coast on Jan. 31. Australia welcomed them with open arms.
Presenting 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture through dance and music Shen Yun brings a completely new set of dances and costumes to the stage each year.
Jane Feather, a medical researcher and her daughter were delighted to attend the first performance.
“I think it is beautiful. Absolutely stunningly beautiful!” she said.
She was particularly taken with the educational aspect of how Shen Yun conveyed the traditional Chinese culture.
“I have an adopted Chinese daughter so we try to immerse her in as much Chinese culture as possible,” she said. “I think it [Shen Yun] is steeped in history.”
Ms. Feather also mentioned the importance of maintaining the beauty of one’s culture, “In this global economic world and everything we are becoming, I think it is nice to have your own cultural identity.”
Shen Yun is a performing arts company established in New York in 2006, it seeks to revive the true five-millennia—old artistic tradition that thrived before decades of suppression. Bilingual emcees give audiences insight into Chinese history and culture.
‘Absolutely Excellent’
Colleen Cuddihy attended Shen Yun with her friend as a birthday celebration.
“I thought it was absolutely excellent,” she said. “I enjoyed it so much.”
She was enthralled by so many aspects of Shen Yun.
“The professionalism and the intricacy, the beauty, the beauty of the backdrops and the way the backdrops were incorporated into the stage. I thought it was absolutely superb.”
Ms. Cuddihy also appreciated the music especially the drumming. “The timing! That drum sequence where they changed places and yet not a seconds pause. I thought it was superb, absolutely superb.”
Through dance dramas Shen Yun brings legends and tales spanning 5000 years to the stage, along with folk and ethnic dance. Bringing these stories to life, Shen Yun uses state-of-the-art digitally animated backdrops, an innovation in the world of dance, pioneered by Shen Yun.
A glimpse in vistas across China captured Ms. Cuddihy. She said her and her friend both love to travel and experience other cultures. “This is like taking a little trip to Tibet seeing the cultural underpinnings of Tibet and Mongolia,” she said.
Ms. Cuddihy said that she would like to write a letter to the dancers telling them that the performance was outstanding.
Reporting by NTD Television and Margo MacVicar
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reaction since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
