KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Outside was a beautiful spring day, and inside the beauty of Shen Yun Performing Arts shined at the Muriel Kauffman Theater at the Kauffman Center in downtown KCMO, on April 2. Theatergoers found the performance to be amazing, exciting, and culturally rich.
Shen Yun’s aim is to give authentic traditional Chinese culture to the world. It’s vehicle is traditional classical Chinese arts---classical Chinese dance, folk and ethnic dance, live orchestral music incorporating traditional Eastern instruments, opera-like singing, and story-telling theater.
Joey Harris and his wife Cyressa Harris described Shen Yun as truly amazing and a once-in-a-life-time experience.
“It’s just been phenomenal with the colors and just everything synchronized together,” said Mr. Harris.
“It’s a once in a lifetime thing for us,” said Ms. Harris. “You are not going to see performances like this very often anymore. So, it’s a unique blend of culture and artistic abilities.”
“There are several different scenes [which] invoke different emotions,” she said. She and her husband had similar responses.
“It was real joyous at the beginning and then you just see the silly undertones [of] the Monkey King, and then … the Red Guard, and I felt the compassion for the people that were getting hurt,” said Mr. Harris, in describing three different dances.
Shen Yun was formed because this ancient culture and its associated values and beliefs revered the divine. This culture was almost completely destroyed during communist regimes anti-tradition campaigns. One such campaign was the Cultural Revolution during the ‘60s and ’70s, which was often enforced by the cruelty of students of the Red Guard. “Intriguing to learn more about their culture,” Ms. Harris said.
The couple would recommend the performance to all ages. ‘I would love to bring my kids with me to see this too,” said Ms. Harris. Her children range in age from 2 to 16.
“It’s very lively, vibrant, and just to experience a different culture, it would be fantastic [for everyone],” Mr. Harris said.
It’s A Lost Culture Everyone Should Know About
At the same performance as Mr. and Ms. Harris was Joseph T. Novak and his daughter, Cindy Robinette, a pediatrics nurse.
“It’s very beautiful. ... And everything was coordinated just beautifully,” Mr. Novak said. “I also know they are emphasizing their conditions China, I hope everything turns out like they want it to.”
Ms. Robinette felt the same as her dad. Shen Yun is “very beautiful, very coordinated. It’s a lost culture, something I never even thought about,” she said.
“I think everyone needs to be educated on the culture in China, and the things they do and can’t do, and appreciate this art. That’s a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work,” Ms. Robinette said.
‘They Bring A Lot of Vibe with the Performance’
Mr. Dwight Eddington Sr., project manager at TEFA Inc. and his wife, Doris Eddington, were among the theatergoers too and were very impressed with what they saw.
“The performance is great. They have a lot of authenticity. They bring a lot of vibe with the performance, so I am enjoying it,” said Mr. Eddington.
“Just kind of trying to keep up and watch everything that is going on, so it’s kind of exciting.” She also enjoyed the spiritual component of traditional Chinese culture.
Ms. Eddington would recommend Shen Yun to family and friends. “I would tell them to come; it’s very exciting and they would get a lot out of it.”
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
