DETROIT—“We have just come back from a trip, from Thailand where we celebrated the Chinese New Year. We thought this would be a wonderful completion to our trip and we found it spectacular,” said Mary Michno-Spillane.
Ms. Michno-Spillane is senior director of sales and marketing for the automotive division of Sirius XM satellite radio. She and dentist Shawn Spillane attended the Sunday matinee of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Detroit Opera House on Feb. 9.
The New York-based Shen Yun has four companies that simultaneously tour at least 100 cities in 20 countries worldwide each season.
The program is comprised of 20 or so mini-dramas that present a display of traditional Chinese culture through Chinese classical dance, symphonic music, and interactive HD backdrops.
“The costumes, the pageantry the dance, the history, was all very well performed on stage. The beauty of the movement of the dancers was wonderful,” Ms. Michno-Spillane said.
Mr. Spillane said, “I enjoyed the beauty of all of that, but especially the spirituality of the performance as well.”
“People are in this world... trying to maintain the honesty and the beauty of this world and staying within oneself, I think, and knowing one’s place and trying to avoid all the misgivings and trappings of the world,” he elaborated.
“I think you also see the passion of the history of the Chinese people coming out in the dancers that are performing, wanting to keep the value and the inspiration of the history of China alive, even though it’s not even allowed in their country,” Ms. Michno-Spillane added.
“I think for the people to continue to keep that alive and to create awareness to the world—because [they] perform all over the world—is well depicted in the performance,” she said.
This is our first performance here, and we will definitely return. It was just spectacular.”
Ms. Michno-Spillane talked about a definite connection she made with the show. She said, “especially with the Buddhism. The relationship to Buddhism, and the passion that was depicted with these performers.”
She mentioned how the passion she felt was evident throughout the show, “and not only the dancers, but the tenor, the singer, the pianist, as well as well as the erhu. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful,” she said.
Shen Yun’s orchestra is the only traveling orchestra in the world that features Eastern and Western instruments combined as permanent instrumentation. It creates a harmonic timbre all its own.
“The music was moving. It was beautiful. It definitely depicted different eras,” Ms. Michno-Spillane explained,“unique to the story that it was telling, or the dance that it was representing.”
She further commented, “It was melodic. It brought you into the story. I thought it was very well-performed. The orchestra was outstanding.”
“I would agree,” Mr. Spillane said. “The accompaniment was blended right into the performance. It was my first exposure to Chinese instruments. The erhu was just beautiful.”
Overall, Ms. Michno-Spillane really enjoyed the show. She said, “I think it’s a fantastic performance. The training is incredible. It’s well represented on the stage. I think it mesmerized you right from the first act.”
She was impressed by the dance called Lotuses in Bloom. “That was spectacular. Just the color, and then the dance itself,” she added.
Before she left Ms. Michno-Spillane said, “I would definitely identify this performance to friends, those not only in my work environment, but my very close friends. I think they would have totally enjoyed this performance.”
With reporting by Andrew Darin
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The 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.
