SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—Shen Yun Performing Arts is on its biggest tour yet, and on Feb. 21 the New York-based classical Chinese dance company took to the stage at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater.
“It gave me hope that there’s people around the world who love virtue and light and goodness and trying to achieve the highest form of that that they can,” he said.
“I like that they represented that. We come from heaven and we’re trying to get back to heaven. We have a Creator that loves us and is there to help us. We have forces from heaven that are working and battling for us. I love that it brought that together and demonstrated that in such an elevating way. It’s so beautifully portrayed. Such perfection in dance and music. I just thought it was very uplifting.”Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through music and dance. This traditional culture is highlighted even in the story-based dances set in the modern day.
Mr. Thompson had profound takeaways from this performance.
“It made me feel that we all know we’re in the last days and something is going to happen. We’ve been told for thousands of years that this is the time. This is the time of the judgment,” he said.
“There are beings from the other side that are going to help us, and there are people here that will stand up. I love the part where the lady in purple changed her heart. That to me was my favorite part of the whole thing, where [a character] realized she had done something wrong and she then began defending the truth. She was willing to give her life to defend the truth. That, to me, was really beautiful. That what they did inspired her to change even though she had persecuted them to start with. That, to me, was really neat.”Mr. Thompson noted the beauty of truth, compassion, and forbearance in a piece: “Beautiful virtues and principles.”
Great Stories About Family Values
Matthew and Ariana Fuller brought their children to the performance. Mr. Fuller’s career is in real estate and Mrs. Fuller is a managing director of Goldman Sachs. She thought the storytelling was special. “Goodness, I love the storytelling. You don’t find this kind of storytelling anymore.”Mr. Fuller saw how Chinese culture is honored. “Nice to see the pride in your history,” he said. “In what you believe. Your history and your background,” Mrs. Fuller added.
Shen Yun Stories Emotionally Moving
Tanya Allen, an office administrator in the health care field, and her husband Todd, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, had much to share about the storytelling as well.
“I got emotional a couple of times: the story of the emperor and his concubine ... and then the one where the wife ... sacrifices herself so that her baby can go back to her husband. That was wonderful. And then the unprecedented crime in the the modern day. That just broke my heart,” she said.
Mr. Allen enjoyed the humorous stories, “like the drunk monk. That was a lot of fun to see that.”
There were also stories recounting spiritual culture. Mr. Allen said, “I thought that was a beautiful portrayal of the Creator’s plan for everything, and to save humanity, to return to the Creator. It was a wonderful message.”
Mr. Allen noted that people should care for one another, to “be good to each other.”
Mr. Allen added, “We appreciate you coming here to Salt Lake City and sharing it with us. It was a really amazing experience. Thank you.”
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