RALEIGH, N.C.—After two months and then a two-hour and 45-minute drive, Stanley Moore was not disappointed after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts on Sunday afternoon.
“It is absolutely mind-blowing how talented those people are, and the precision of their movements is hard to believe,” he said.
Mr. Moore and Allison Moore, a college student, saw a video promo about the New York-based company at a local fair, and they knew they wanted to go see it. They drove from New Bern, N.C., to Raleigh and saw the performance at Duke Energy Center For The Performing Arts on Jan. 24.
“[We] thought it was beautiful, so we wanted to come,” Ms. Moore said.
They purchased their tickets way ahead of time and even the bad weather could not stop them from seeing Shen Yun for the first time. Mr. Moore worried about the roads freezing over before he got back home, but said the show was worth the trip.
“Oh, yes, no question about that,” he said.
Mr. Moore said he was exposed to Chinese culture in a way he had never been before.
“The music was engaging, and I enjoyed it very much,” he said with praise. “I’m a singer, so I especially enjoyed listening to the tenor.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts is a classical Chinese dance company that performs mini-drama dances, which are accompanied by a unique symphony orchestra, and a digital backdrop that brings the performance to life.
“The colors, the stage play, the use of special effects to tell stories was all very, very good,” Mr. Moore said.
Vocalists and solo musical performers are interspersed between the dances. The Chinese vocalists sing with precision in their native language while mastering the Italian bel canto style.
To Mr. Moore the music was enriching to his soul. He said he believes that music has a divine nature to it and in this performance, the music expressed a beauty that is very good.
Although he was surprised that the songs had such profound meaning, the message of one song resonated with him.
“[The] message was material things don’t provide lasting happiness and there’s more to life than that, and I agree with that wholeheartedly,” he said.
The messages in the songs made Mr. Moore reflect on his own life. “I thought it was soul searching, and there’s always room for that in my life,” he said.
But the highlight of the day for Ms. Moore was the classical Chinese dance, which brought to mind the Western style of classical dance, ballet.
Classical Chinese dance has its own complete system passed down from dynasty to dynasty over thousands of years. Although graceful like ballet, it is distinguishable. Its technical skills, which include jumping, leaping, flipping, and turning are incorporated with graceful movements.
The dancers are also trained to emit emotions from deep within to project the inner meaning of the performances, which often express moral principles.
“The beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature,” states the Shen Yun website.
“It was really fascinating to watch,” said Ms. Moore.
Reporting by Sherry Dong and Arleen Richards
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.
