MINNEAPOLIS—For Sarah Lindsay, seeing Shen Yun was stepping away from the hard pressing technologies of the modern, industrial world, and stepping toward the light of true happiness found in one’s “spiritual center, the god within us all, the light within us all.”
“The dancing definitely represented that—the light within us all,” said Ms. Lindsay, after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts on Feb. 19 at Minneapolis’s Orpheum Theatre.
The company owner felt so happy from the performance that her comments were punctuated by laughter.
Bobby Gillespie, a healthcare professional, who attended with Ms. Lindsay, felt similarly: “It was a beautiful display of artistry and storytelling and a way of encouraging people to look beyond the daily grind of work and bills and acquiring things, and hold fast to truth and beauty and love and honor, in a very simple, and elegant and beautiful and expressive way.”
Shen Yun relies on classical Chinese dance to tell stories of China’s traditional culture, long believed to be divinely inspired. Many of the dances and songs highlight man’s connection to God.
“I really liked the way that it told a story,” Ms. Lindsay said. “There was a message to be told and it was beautifully done. … I feel you don’t get a lot of important information told in a way that just hits all of your senses.”
The dances not only told a story for the pair, they carried them away to some magical realm.
Ms. Lindsay said the breathtaking, visually stunning performance transferred the viewer to a “magical live fairy-tale.”
“The airiness, the freedom with which they danced, the color, … it was like a meal to the senses but in your soul too,” she said. “It was just [a] beautiful integrative experience.”
Mr. Gillespie added that it created a “fantastical fantasy world” that provided a transformative experience.
In fact, for Ms. Lindsay, “it was like being almost in a movie,” but it was richer than a movie or mere entertainment because it made her feel so much and so connected with people.
Perhaps it created a richer experience because it reminded her that “true happiness doesn’t come from … external things.”
Or as Mr. Gillespie said, it spoke “the universal truth of love, of beauty, of acceptance, of seeking truth and love in oneself, and not seeking one’s identity in their job or bank account, the things they own, and just loving one another and honoring one another and being as kind to each other as we want to feel in return.”
Reporting by Sally Sun and Sharon Kilarski
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.
