WASHINGTON—Shen Yun Performing Arts treated those in the audience at the Kennedy Center Opera House on Saturday, March 24, to a display of traditional Chinese culture through music and dance.
“I like it a lot,” said Patrick Brenton, of the U.S. Department of State. “I recommend this show to everyone. Culturally it is something that everybody would enjoy.”
Shen Yun is based in New York and has one mission: to revive 5,000 years of divinely-inspired Chinese culture, and its virtues such as kindness, sincerity, and honor, as well as respect for the heavens, according to the company’s website. After more than 60 years of communist rule in China nearly destroyed the ancient culture, Shen Yun was formed in 2006 and began to travel the world, appearing in top venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center and The London Coliseum.
Joey, Mr. Brenton’s son said he “enjoyed it very much and the background was impressive,” referring to the digital backdrops that complement the heart of a Shen Yun performance, the high-level art form that is classical Chinese dance.
Also presented are brilliantly colored costumes and an orchestra that melds classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments such as the 4,000-year-old erhu, or two-stringed Chinese violin.