KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Shen Yun Performing Art’s celebration of traditional Chinese culture is told through the universal language of dance and music. It takes audiences on journey of 5,000 years from ancient times to the present.
Tickets to see Shen Yun perform at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts was Barbie Rogoff’s treat to herself and Sue Boxer. “It’s amazing and what a great way to spend the day with a friend,” said Ms. Boxer.
Shen Yun is known for its splendid beauty in its display of colorful costumes and high tech animated digital backdrops, the sound of its live orchestral music, and the movement of its dancers.
“It’s beautiful; it’s absolutely stunning and so moving. I had no idea,” said Barbie Rogoff, owner of Synthesis, Inc. She describes her accounting company as “We do left brain work for right brain people.”
Ms. Boxer, a pre-school director, began to realize the story that Shen Yun would tell from the advertisements. “I had a sense of the profound beauty of the costumes .... But, the power of the emotions that it shares with us---just through their subtle movements and their big movements—it’s just amazing.”
Shen Yun also shares dances that show the impact communism has had on traditional values and beliefs, as well as on people of traditional faiths. The performance has two dances which depict the 17-year old persecution of the meditation practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.
Ms. Rogoff was deeply moved by these dances. “That it’s going on today [the persecution in China], that we’re seeing it even in our own United States, the feeling against some other religions and cultures—it moved me to tears. It really did: that anyone would be persecuted for meditating ... .”
“She said it beautifully,” Ms. Boxer said.
The theme of spirituality is presented both in the dances and in the lyrics of the bel canto-style solos sung in Chinese. The lyrics, the Chinese characters and English translations of the songs, are projected on to the digital screen, and present philosophical reflections on life.
“It was the soloist, also, who so moved me,” said Ms. Boxer. Through the song’s lyrics Ms. Boxer saw that “there’s something bigger than we. We try to give that to people all the time through our lives and our work as well,” she said.
“To realize that shared journey, no matter what your culture, no matter where you are, [or] who you are, that universal theme rings so true,” she said.
“Shen Yun is not to be missed. I had heard about it for so long and was blessed with my friend inviting me. And, what a gift,” said Ms. Boxer.
“See it, describe it. This is one thing you have to see to utterly believe. It’s beyond words,” Ms. Rogoff said.
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.
