ADELAIDE, Australia—Adelaide, often referred to as the city of churches, waved good-bye to Shen Yun Performing Arts as the final curtain drew to a close at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on April 7.
Ms. Jones, who works in the performing arts in Adelaide, appreciated the quality of the Shen Yun performance and the insight into 5,000 years of Chinese history.
“The show [Shen Yun] is very advanced. The stories, the history, and the fairy tales. I do love the costumes, the flow of the costumes, the colours, and the flowing of the costumes.”
Ms. Jones had never seen a show such as this. She was eager to share it with her family and friends.
She shared they had attended other theatre shows before, “but nothing showing the history and the story. I will tell my friends tonight when I get home and get my emails going [aobut] how much I enjoyed it.”
“I think it was very good. I enjoyed it,” Mr. Millbank said.
Mr. Millbank particularly appreciated the costumes and the drums, “Very bright costumes and lots of dance ... I liked in particular the drums.”
His interest in martial arts has given him a deep interest in Asian culture, and he found the show to be have very good insight. He said that he wasn’t familiar with some of the stories, such as Mulan and the Monkey King, so he appreciated learning about them.
Mr. Millbank’s girlfriend particularly liked the state of the art digital back drop. She said, “I like the costumes and the backdrops, the people coming out of the screen.” Her mother added, “I have never seen that before, when the people came out of the screen.” They felt it was so realistic that her father continued “When the rocks started to fall, I nearly got up and ran. It was so realistic.”
They all appreciated Monk Ji Gong Abducts the Bride and “the message that you should listen when you are told something as that person may know more than you.”
Monk Ji Gong is one of the most beloved figures from Chinese history, who has long been remembered for his unorthodox, seemingly-crazy manner of doing good works. In this tale, Ji Gong comes up with an eccentric solution to the imperiled villagers’ indifference.
They all liked the singers and the pianist. Mr. Millbank added, “The pianist was very very good. Maybe she should play a solo.”
In summing up they all agreed “We would come again. We were lucky to be here.”
In the audience were Mr. and Mrs. Jury and their daughter Laura. Mr Jury said, “We’re into Chinese martial arts.”
Mr. Jury, a project manager for a plastic products company, agreed with his wife who said, “I thought it was lovely, very inspirational, and just beautiful—the whole thing.
“The dancers were beautiful, very skilled, and very talented—both the men and the women.
“I love the costumes and the dances. I think it is terribly clever the way they twirl and do their flips. They are beautifully trained, and I think that is a credit to them.
“I find it [Shen Yun] lovely, very educational, and informative about [modern and ancient] China.”
In trying to decide which was their favourite performance Ms. Jury said, “The whole package was just beautifully put together. You couldn’t isolate one to be better. I guess the modern dance, where the young man was killed … persecuted … that was very sad.”
They both felt “It got the message across very well.”
“I feel this is all about the oppression that people are trying to fight against, and how they stood up for their beliefs and were punished for it. They still manage to keep their culture and their beautiful dancing no matter what was happening around them. I think the whole thing is really lovely,” Mrs. Jury added.
When asked what feeling they would go home with tonight, Mr. Jury replied, “A feeling of [being] uplifted. It is something we like, and enjoy.”
Mrs. Jury added, “A deep respect for Chinese culture, since it is so ancient. It goes back so much further than ours.”
For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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