MELBOURNE, Australia—It was a lovely summer evening in Melbourne for the opening night of Shen Yun Performing Arts. The company presents through the medium of beautiful classical Chinese dance excerpts of China’s 5,000 years of history. Shen Yun is based in New York but travels the world with a mission to revive China’s ancient culture and its spiritual values of truth and loyalty.
Among the theatregoers in Melbourne’s State Theatre, on Feb. 20, was Tania de Jong. Ms. de Jong is a renowned soprano, a successful businesswoman, and a motivational speaker with a Law degree. Her efforts have been recognised in many awards including Member of the Order of Australia for creating music and art programs in schools and communities.
She is passionate about people finding their own voice not only in singing together in choirs but also speaking up in society, so she very much resonated with the Shen Yun story.
“This is world class entertainment, and it is a very important story about civilisation today. We need to speak our truth and not be silenced,” said Ms. de Jong.
The dancers produce quite an effect on the feelings of the audience connecting them with nature and the heavens; such as in the colourful Tibetan ethnic dance “Celebrating the Divine” with its magnificent landscape scenery of the Himalayas and the sounds of authentic ethnic music played by the unique Shen Yun Orchestra.
“Just so many emotions. It’s so beautiful and the scenery is incredible. It’s incredibly precise. It just makes me remember that same serenity to the Divine, that is in within each of us. This is a universe where we are all connected and we have to remember that. It just makes me feel like it’s so important for us to connect to one another.”
She was quite moved by the stories in dance and the words in song extolling the ancient values that are relevant for all societies today.
“It reminds us that we are all part of this one world,” she said. “It’s incredibly important for us to build bridges between us, rather than walls and boxes and separation. We are all part of this world together, and we have to get along with one another and live in harmony.”
“Everyone’s voice matters, we can all sing off the same song sheet.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Philippa Rayment
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.
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.
