NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.—The grace of classical Chinese dance along with stories spanning thousands of years returned to the Tri-State area Saturday night, as Shen Yun Performing Arts performed its season finale in New Brunswick.
Acupuncturist Joseph Tonzola, along with a full house of enthusiastic audience members, lauded Shen Yun’s performance.
“Everything is really beautiful. I love all the dancing [and] the music,” Mr. Tonzola said, referring to the company’s unique orchestra that joins together Western and Chinese instrumentation that works in tandem with the dancers’ training in classical Chinese dance.
Mr. Tonzola also was impressed with Shen Yun’s digital backdrop, which uses a hi-tech digital projector to display elaborate, colorful scenery with life-like movements.
“It’s great to see all the images on the screen come to life,” he remarked.
But he came back to the dances—the focal point of Shen Yun’s performances. “The dancing is really beautiful,” he said.
Classical Chinese dance is among the most comprehensive forms of performing arts in the world, with both complex and difficult-to-master jumping and tumbling techniques, according to the company’s website.
Attending with Mr. Tonzola was Suzanne Scholten, a yoga teacher, who was particularly impressed with the variety of props the dancers use and how they are used to tell a story.
“I love the colors and the costumes—like the scarves that acted like ripples,” she said. “That was beautiful ... how they can manipulate the sleeves, and just what it represents.” She added: “It means more than ’this is a scarf.'”
Some of the props in Shen Yun include long and flowing sleeves, bowls that are balanced on the dancers’ heads, chopsticks, and drums.
Shen Yun’s aim is to revive the 5,000-year-old culture of China through performing arts and music, as much of that culture was willfully destroyed under six decades of communist rule, the company says.
Reporting by Stephanie Lam and Jack Phillips.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts
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