DETROIT—Again Detroit warmly welcomed Shen Yun Performing Arts at each of its performances given at the historic and elegant Detroit Opera House. The Opera House has been the venue for seven of the eight years that Detroit has hosted the company.
Shen Yun celebrates 5,000 years of Chinese heritage and depicts it through storytelling dance and music “of heavenly realms, ancient legends, and modern heroic tales,” according to Shen Yun’s website.
Tom and Debbie Grissom were among the audience at the last performance in Detroit on Feb. 8 by the Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company, one of four companies that tour simultaneously.
“Very exciting,” said Mr. Grissom, director of business development for BorgWarner Turbo Systems. It’s very good, very enjoyable.”
“Shen Yun Performing Arts’ dance style is built upon classical Chinese dance as a foundation, while also maintaining a number of ethnic and folk dances. This combination embodies Chinese people’s aestheticism and ethnic character,” states the Shen Yun website.
Mr. Grissom found the technically demanding techniques and the coordinated movement of the dancers interesting. His wife, Debbie loved the costumes and the way the dancers moved.
Another feature of Shen Yun is the high-tech animation of the digital backdrop that changes for each of the 20 mini-dance and music dramas. Mrs. Grissom found the graphic backdrop to be awesome.
“I can’t even put it into words,” said Mrs. Grissom. “It really holds your attention; I mean the time just flies by; it’s just so fabulous and colorful, majestic. I can’t even come up with all the words. It’s pageantry!” she explained.
Shen Yun mission is to revive and restore traditional Chinese culture to its fullest extent—a culture decimated by 60-plus years of communist rule in China, particularly during the Cultural Revolution.
At intermission Mrs. Grissom asked her husband, since he has traveled to China often, if he saw this sort of performance there. His answer was no.
“I think that would be great to bring back their culture, thousands of years old. We don’t have that here in the United States. So it is a wonderful thing to see ... and wonderful that Shen Yun is reviving traditional culture,” she said.
Her husband agreed. Mr. Grissom said that you don’t often see from the communist regime’s perspective in China “anything other than what they want you to see, hear, and believe how things are, when that is not always necessarily the case. So, seeing the other perspective was very interesting.”
Shen Yun performances can touch an audience because as Mr. Grissom describes, “They are personal stories that you can relate to the interaction. There is romance, compassion, and for one story, good winning over [evil]… overcoming the odds, a lot of wonderful things.”
Many audience members report they feel uplifted from the performance and the beauty. For Mrs. Grissom, it made her feel happy. The couple both saw Shen Yun to be very positive and exciting.
The next Midwest stops for Shen Yun are Feb. 10-11 in Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 11-12 in Lansing, Mich., Feb. 13-15 in Minneapolis, Minn., and Feb. 14-15 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reaction since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006
