WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Shen Yun Performing Arts is traveling to West Palm Beach for a third consecutive year to present theatergoers with an array of heavenly scenes, ancient legends, and contemporary tales—all through the 5,000-year-old traditions of classical Chinese dance and music.
This year’s performances are scheduled for the evenings of April 21 and 22 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
Last year, in the same theater, Shen Yun met with enthusiastic reviews from dancers, professors, and authors, among other theatergoers.
‘Absolutely Thrilled’
Speaking of Shen Yun’s 2014 West Palm Beach performance, Marjorie Faver, a former dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, said, “I’m absolutely thrilled.”
She said of the dancers: “Their feet were beautiful, … their arabesques, their attitudes, everything that they did. They walked like they were gliding on water. Their precision—it’s just amazing, absolutely amazing.”
“Chinese dance is at the heart of what Shen Yun does. Known for its incredible flips and spins, and its gentle elegance, it is one of the most rigorous and expressive art forms in the world,” the company website states.
‘Another World’
Jean François, a professor of medicine in Paris, France, enjoyed the cosmic elements of Shen Yun while attending at the Kravis Center in April 2014.
“I think we belong to the cosmos,” the professor said. “You believe in God or you don’t believe in God, but there is cosmos. There is a sun, the moon, the stars, and all that is part of us, and when you see [Shen Yun], you feel the cosmos around you—and voilà!”
Onstage, Shen Yun portrays elements of traditional Chinese culture and its close link to the divine, as the website states: “Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience.”
Mr. François said, “You know this [Shen Yun] is another civilization. Here inside [the theater] you see a classical civilization.”
‘Feel Blessed’
Author Gale Nemec, who writes children’s books and spiritual books, said of the 2014 West Palm Beach performance: “It made me cry. It was so beautiful, and it was so well-done.”
Ms. Nemec was taken by Shen Yun’s state-of-the-art graphics technology and digital-backdrops, which act as magical windows into other realms.
“[It] was just beautiful with the actors, the dancers going offstage, and then all of a sudden, they’re flying away, and then coming back. It was gorgeous!”
The digital backdrops are intricate and true to life, and as Ms. Nemec described, they harmonize with other elements of the performance, even the dancers themselves.
The two performances at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts will be the last opportunity to see Shen Yun in Florida during its 2015 world tour. The company has already performed in Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Myers, St. Petersburg, and Miami, and will return to Florida again for the 2016 season.
Reporting by NTD Television and Epoch Times Staff
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
