NEWARK, N.J.—With a resounding gong, the curtains peel back to the heavens, golden and dazzling. Divine beings descend to triumphant music by a live orchestra, and legends and myths, rulers and common folk, and heroes and villains in China’s 5,000-year civilization take their turn on stage over 180 minutes in Newark’s premier theater.
Shen Yun Performing Arts returned to New Jersey the evening of April 29, and by the end of performance, the nearly packed Prudential Hall in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center rose to its feet in rapturous applause.
“It’s wonderful,” said Susan Sobbott, president of the Global Commercial Payments business at American Express.
Ms. Sobbott, who was with her husband Keith Druckenmiller and their three children, thought that Shen Yun was a “nice representation of Chinese culture that we’re experiencing and exposing our children to.”
Founded in New York in 2006, Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance company, is on a mission to revive authentic traditional Chinese culture that was destroyed and nearly lost during the over 60 years of communist rule in China.
And classical Chinese dance, being passed down and refined in the imperial courts and among the people over thousands of years, is the ideal medium to convey and restore China’s deeply cultural and divinely-inspired civilization.
Ms. Sobbott and Mr. Druckenmiller were most attracted to the authentic costumes, both Han Chinese clothing and ethnic dress, worn by the male and female Shen Yun dancers.
“The costumes are amazing. They’re very vibrant and are in beautiful colors,” said Mr. Druckenmiller. Meanwhile, Ms. Sobbott loved the long white scarves that female Shen Yun dancers wear and incorporate in a Tibetan dance piece.
Also in the audience was trial lawyer Harley Breite, who accompanied his mother to watch Shen Yun.
Mr. Breite, who runs his own law firm and is a long-time a martial arts practitioner, was very impressed with the rigor and synchronization he saw on stage.
“These people are top professionals,” Mr. Breite said.
Mr. Breite also appreciated the vocal performance by a female soprano soloist and a pianist, having studied the instrument himself.
“I thought it was very symphonic, yet very nice, simple, and elegant,” he said of the musical performance.
Shen Yun will perform another two matinees at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on April 30 and May 1.
Reporting by Frank Liang and Larry Ong
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.
