Shen Yun is ‘Preserving something that would otherwise be lost’

Ms. Brown said “It’s a performance not to be missed.”
Shen Yun is ‘Preserving something that would otherwise be lost’
Kathryn Brown attends Shen Yun Performing Arts in Madison. (Valerie Avore/The Epoch Times)
4/6/2012
Updated:
10/1/2015
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Kathryn Brown attends Shen Yun Performing Arts

MADISON, Wis.—Kathryn Brown journeyed from Beloit to Madison, over an hour’s drive, to see Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company performing at the Overture Center for the Arts on Thursday night, April 5.

The clinical psychologist said she definitely enjoyed the performance. “It’s absolutely colorful, and musically, very entertaining,” she said.

New York-based Shen Yun has a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture through song and dance, and the orchestra it tours with is comprised of both Western and Chinese instruments.

Ms. Brown considered the orchestra very fine. She also enjoyed the classical nature of the dance presented, and its “technique,” a defining characteristic of classical Chinese dance, that is, its difficult flips, turns and spins.

But perhaps most intriguing to her was the digitally animated backdrop, a special feature of a Shen Yun performance: “The coordination of the background with the performance, I think, is unique. I haven’t seen that kind of thing before and we go to lots of different entertainments.”

Ms. Brown also commented on the message of the performance, saying: “What I see in the show is an honoring of some diversity of culture that in China, as a nation today, may not be represented, that has been sort of, if not extinguished, at least subjected to the main political element [there].

“So it’s an honoring of more ancient cultures ... There’s a respect for and a beauty [that] has been around for centuries ... a message of artistry and preserving something that would otherwise be lost.”

Ms. Brown said “it’s a performance not to be missed.”

Reporting by Valerie Avore and Sharon Kilarski.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will next perform in Calgary, Canada, April 8-9.

For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org