Ms. Marinescu recalled that the name “Shen Yun” means the beauty of divine beings dancing. She expressed that “we need more of these spectacles. It’s not really just a show, it’s something more. I really enjoyed it.”
As someone who grew up in a country ruled by communism, she added that she was touched by the effort of Shen Yun to present true, traditional Chinese culture.
“I think it’s very brave to put yourself against a communist regime. I’m Romanian and I know what it means. I lived in communism until 17 years old. So I like the spiritual part and of course all the traditions, it’s beautiful. Very beautiful, the colors, everything. It’s exciting,” she said.
She added that she believed that humanity needs to be “saved from ourselves, from our selfishness.”
Gemma Milazzo, a designer, was also in the audience and she echoed some of Ms. Marinescu’s sentiments.
“I think it’s very important for freedom in China. It’s also good to stimulate awareness of this problem to the West,” said Ms. Milazzo.
“You are very brave to do something that goes beyond dance,” and she added that what Shen Yun is doing is very important.
Pierluigi Budina, a chief physician, and his wife Lucia and son Giovanni were also in attendance.
Mr. Budina expressed his gratitude to Shen Yun for showing Florence what communism looks like.
“There’s this link and you feel it here in a special way because Florence has always been a communist city and the fact that someone tells you that over there in China you can’t do such things, it’s some sort of liberation because here people don’t believe it.”
“So this show is a message of hope. You tried to bring hope [to] communist China, which has destroyed the spirit [and the belief in] God, which has killed its own rich imperial tradition, which is quite important. But you also gave a message of hope to us.”
Franco Cracolici, the director of a school of Chinese medicine, sent his compliments to the artistic director of Shen Yun saying, “the Artistic Director is definitely a genius, he’s an extraordinary man, and I hope that for many years he will carry on a show like this.”
