FRESNO, Calif.—“It was really awesome!” said Denise Garcia after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts with her daughter Darcy at the Fresno’s William Saroyan Theater on Jan. 16.
Mrs. Garcia is a paralegal who did a lot of jazz and ballet when she was younger. Her daughter plays the snare drum and loves percussion. Mother and daughter rarely go to the theater but after seeing the advertisement, Shen Yun was something they did not want to miss.
“We knew it was a great thing to watch,” Mrs. Garcia said. And Shen Yun did not disappoint.
“It was great, a lot of perfection … there were difficult routines … so I really enjoyed it,” she said.
“I noticed all their hands were in position, all the accents were made. I know they hit a lot of the accents with the music, and it was right on. Really nice.”
Classical Chinese dance is at the heart of Shen Yun, but the performance also incorporates some folk and ethnic dances from a possible 55 ethnic minorities.
“Classical Chinese dance has a long history of thousands of years, and while soaking up profound wisdom from every era and dynasty, it has become a complete system of dance, embodying traditional aesthetic principles. Classical Chinese dance has three main components—bearing, form, and technical skill,” the Shen Yun website states.
Mrs. Garcia appreciated the different styles and how they incorporated the scarves and handkerchiefs into the dances, as well as the strength of the male dancers. “The handkerchief dance, and the sleeves, they were really very talented,” she said.
She and her daughter both thought the music, an orchestra which blends Western and Eastern sounds, was so perfect they found it hard to believe it could be live, and they were amazed with the synchronization of the music with the animated backdrops and the dancers.
“We noticed the different instruments that were used. It wasn’t just a basic orchestra. They had so many extras in there; we could hear all of that. The accents and the dance went directly with the music, so it was really good … It was such a good combination … the dance and the orchestra together.”
Miss Garcia said she had have always wanted to play percussion, and just hearing Shen Yun’s drums awakened that dream and made her long for it even more.
Shen Yun brings to the stage millennia of Chinese traditions and culture through music and dance. Although she is not Chinese, Mrs. Garcia felt she could relate to the mini-dramas presented. She felt they were universal.
“[Shen Yun] did a good job bringing the culture back. All the traditional culture. It was great,” she said.
She left feeling the performance had given them peace, letting them escape the world to peace for awhile and go to a place that was beautiful and spiritual.
“Everything that was portrayed was just beautiful. The heavenly beings and the costumes for each of the heavenly beings. It was really good.”
Reporting by Gary Wang and Leigh Smith
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.
