COSTA MESA, Calif.—At the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Tuesday evening, April 12, musician, music producer, and CEO of a wholesale distribution company Kalani Green said he aspires to someday produce music as phenomenal as what he just witnessed at Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Mr. Green. “It was, in a way, it’s own form of magic.”
Mr. Green, who works with sounds derived from traditional Chinese instruments himself, was familiar with some of what he heard in Shen Yun’s orchestra. But his experience of awe at the Shen Yun’s “magic”-like coordination between all the elements was that of an amazed theatergoer, he explained.
Traditional Chinese instruments like the two-stringed erhu, capable of producing both stirring melodies and whimsical embellishments, and an array of Chinese percussion instruments were mixed into the ensemble of familiar Western instruments like violins and the French horn. Each piece brought an entirely new and original composition made to match each beat and footfall of the dancers.
To see all this, blended with the visuals, was something Mr. Green said he had never experienced. It was almost sorcery levels of interpretation, he said, and created such emotion within him.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. “I thought it was brilliant.”
Shen Yun is the world’s premiere classical Chinese music and dance company, reviving 5000 years of the traditional culture of China, which was once known as “Shen Zhou”—The Divine Land.
Founded in 2006 in New York, Shen Yun “features the world’s foremost classically trained dancers, a unique orchestra blending East and West, and dazzling animated backdrops—together creating one spectacular performance,” states the company website.
A Shen Yun performance also includes vocal soloists, singing in the acclaimed bel canto style, with voices so powerful they don’t need a microphone. Their Chinese lyrics are translated into English and projected onto the backdrop for the audience.
“I really enjoyed the tenor,” said Mr. Green, who comes from a musical family and grew up listening to his grandmother sing. “It was beautiful.”
Each Shen Yun dance piece tells a story or celebrates an aspect of all ages of China’s rich history. The digital backdrop interacts with the performers on stage, adding a modern element to the performance, and allowing the dancers to appear to perform typically unimaginable feats.
Mr. Green said the interpretation of the different stories and themes with the dancing was absolutely amazing. In particular, he said a vignette called “The Lady of the Moon” simply took his breath away.
“The coordination between different elements—it was top-notch, stellar,” said Mr. Green. “It was very harmonious, perfect balance, yin and yang.”
These magical elements of Shen Yun, along with every movement of the dancers, created profound emotions for Mr. Green.
“Every emotion you can experience from bottom to top,” he said. “From sad to happy to excited, to angry.”
Overall, Mr. Green said Shen Yun is something everyone in the world should come and see.
“Everything in that show was beyond well-polished and perfect ... beyond words,” he said.
Reporting by NTD Television and Sarah Le
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.
