NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.—Business and Systems Analyst, Kate Illes enjoyed the high quality performance of world-renowned Shen Yun Performing Arts on Friday evening, Oct. 28.
The New York-based Shen Yun staged a one-off special of the world’s finest in classical Chinese dance and music at the New Jersey State Theatre which drew a full house.
Ms. Illes was so wowed by the performance she had difficulty discerning which part of the program to speak about first.
“I can’t make one sweeping statement. When the women were doing the Plum Blossom [dance]… I mean just the visual effect of the fans and their dancing was beautiful and when the drummers—you could feel the passion when they did that drum dance,“ she said. ”It has a lot of variety that keeps you interested.”
Commenting on the Shen Yun New York Company Orchestra’s unique feature, a blending of Eastern and Western instruments, Ms. Illes said the music was certainly different.
“It is not like hearing a symphony by Bach and you hear the one piece for 15 minutes.”
The business-systems analyst said she recently returned to school to take part in a “music appreciation course” which helped her appreciate other facets to the world of music.
“It is very interesting to see that there are different instruments than just the normal part of the orchestra,” she said. “It is just music appreciation learning classical music … to appreciate the instruments and how melodies are put together.”
She could differentiate between the softer tones emanating from the ancient Eastern instruments and the harder sounds of the contemporary Western ones. “There’s a lot more use of chimes and flutes and the different higher pitched instruments that sound more flowery.”
Ms. Illes also enjoyed the internationally renowned vocalists appreciating the subtitles projected on screen that translated the Chinese characters into English.
One of Shen Yun’s breathtaking features is the use of a backdrop projected screen that changes seamlessly between acts and is choreographed to match each dance, song, or musical solo at hand.
“It is a nice mixture of the live performance, like the people flying up to the mountain—a nice mixture of effects and the live people … ,” she noted. “It makes a more lavish performance, because it’s more involved, it has both components-live performance and you get the story.” It would be very hard to get the impression of people going up the mountain [otherwise], she added.
Ms. Illes appreciated many aspects of the show, including the hand-made ornately adorned colorful costumes and headdresses. She also paused to appreciate her surroundings, the State Theatre.
“It is very nice. I have never been to this theater before and it’s a beautiful place to see
this quality [performance].”
Reporting by Ellen Lin and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts
