GENEVA—The opening performance of the world-renowned Shen Yun Performing Arts at its first European stop of the season was received with tremendous appreciation by a Geneva audience at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices.
London-based film director and producer Anwar Kawadri was full of praise for Shen Yun after witnessing the New York based Shen Yun on March 11.
“It is a spectacular show, there is no doubt about it; very rich in culture,” he said.
Mr. Kawadri, who has written, produced, and directed a number of films in Europe and the Middle East, is the production executive of Dashishah Universal Film Production based in Geneva. The company creates movies co-produced in different countries including the UK, Switzerland, and the United States.
“I was so impressed with the richness and culture side of this production. Because the visual side is so stunning, and so well done between what is on the screen, and what is on the stage…, the whole situation, the connection between the cultural side and the music,” Mr. Kawadri commented on Shen Yun.
‘Artistic value is the most important’
Mr. Kawadri said he was really impressed with Shen Yun’s artistic value.
“The artistic value is the most important, because it is so rich with its historical and cultural side … which goes back thousands and thousands of years and we saw it today,” Mr. Kawadri said.
“And also the folkloric side, the music side, the choreography, and all the dancers, and the main cast were so good in harmony, they must have spent days and hours and weeks and month of rehearsal,” he added.
New York-based Shen Yun was established by a group of leading classical Chinese artists who wished to revive China’s divinely inspired culture. The company features classical Chinese dance, complemented by ethnic dances from different parts of China.
The company’s cultural performances are presented with stunning beauty, treating audiences to hundreds of colorful handmade costumes, state-of-the art animated digital backdrops that interact with the dancers on stage, and a full orchestra that combines classical Western instruments with traditional Chinese instruments, playing original scores that accompany the dance performances.
Shen Yun also features award-winning vocalists who sing Chinese lyrics using the bel canto style.
“The most impressive thing was the actual opera … It is going to go very well with the European audience, I can assure you,” he said.
“I go back to the visual side, it is so well made. To keep me for two hours, with the relationship between what is happening on the screen, on the stage, and how the characters come out from the screen to be transformed to come on the stage, and they go back again.
“All small stories, the cultural historical background of the whole situation is so well made I was so impressed, so very well made.”
Speaking from his professional experience, Mr. Kawadri said Shen Yun is perfection, and emphasized that Shen Yun will be very well received in Europe.
“The tour is going to be very successful in cultural cities like, Paris, London, Barcelona, Milan, Frankfurt, everywhere [Shen Yun is travelling to in] Europe [it will] have a fantastic success,” he said.
“I enjoyed it very much; I will see it again and again.”
Reporting by NTD Television
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.
The 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
