CLEVELAND, Ohio—The Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company captivated Cleveland audiences with two performances at the State Theatre, Dec. 22- 23. Tanya Tusrky, an interior designer, and her daughter, Leslie Tusrky, Karen Derousher, and Debby Ross were among the audience members.
“I thought it was really different,” Ms. Tusrky said. “I like the storytelling.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts is the premiere classical Chinese dance company in the world with the mission of presenting 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture by way of storytelling through classical Chinese dance. The company also presents traditional ethnic and folk dance, an orchestra combining Western and Chinese instruments, and award winning soloists.
Traditional Chinese culture was almost totally destroyed by the communist party rule for the last 60 years, particularly during the Cultural Revolution.
Ms. Tusrky also enjoyed the announcers who introduced each of the performances, and the fact that they spoke both English and Chinese.
Traditional Chinese culture represents many dynasties, ethnicities and regions. Mrs. Tursky and her daughter both enjoyed a traditional ethnic dance from Mongolia, the “Mongolian Bowl Dance, where bowls are balanced on the dancers’ heads to welcome visitors.
Mrs. Tursky joked, “I don’t think I will try that myself … it would fall! I thought it was really interesting.”
Shen Yun is known for being colorful particularly the hundreds of hand-made costumes and accessories and the high technology interactive backdrop. “Even leading fashion designers leave the show excited with new inspiration,” according to the Shen Yun website.
Leslie Tursky said, “I really like the female dancers, their beautiful dresses, they’re so colorful.”
“I do like the background scenes, and the costumes have beautiful designs, wonderful colors. I love the depth and breadth of colors,” Mrs. Tursky said.
“I don’t think I have seen anything like it before,” Ms. Derousher said. She and Ms. Ross were very impressed with the synchronicity of the choreography.
“The dancing was beautiful, and so was the choreography, Ms. Ross explained. ”They are very synchronized.” She was also impressed by the many different dances and how well were each were done.
Reporting by NTD Television and Cat Rooney.
New York-based Shen Yun has three companies that tour the world each year on a mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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