MINNEAPOLIS—“It is a very wonderful performance,” said Dr. Kirk C. Allison, Program Director of Human Rights and Health at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday evening, March 9.
“I am very glad also that [Shen Yun] raises the broader issues of human rights in China and the suffering of many, many innocent people for their spiritual beliefs, and for their right to practice their religion in China,” Dr. Allison said.
New York-based Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of divinely inspired traditional Chinese culture through story-based dance, music, and vocalists. The 60-plus-year rule of the Chinese Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution have almost totally destroyed this traditional culture, says the company’s website. The performance takes the audience to various dynasties in Chinese history up to modern-day China and the persecution of a traditional spiritual practice, Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa.
Dr. Allison was glad to be able to attend this year’s Shen Yun performance in Minneapolis, being his third time seeing the performance, he said.
He stated that the performers are “all really fantastic and the costuming every year is just wonderful.”
He concluded by saying that he would like to tell others, “if you have an opportunity to see this, you should, and everybody should also be engaged in the larger issues that are being presented as well.”
Reporting by Valerie Avore and Cat Rooney.
Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will be at the Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis for one more performance, on March 11.
For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
