CINCINNATI—At intermission of Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company performance at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Paul and Joyce Janszen expressed regret they had not brought their granddaughter who is a ballet dancer to see the performance. “We missed a boat by not bringing her here,” Mr. Janszen said.
Mr. Janszen is president of Container Placement & Exchange, and Mrs. Janszen is now retired from the bookkeeping aspect of the family business.
The mission of Shen Yun is to revitalize a traditional culture steeped with rich history and traditional values of China. These 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture is portrayed through storytelling by dance, music, and song.
“I enjoy it yes, so far,” said Mrs. Janszen.
Each performance builds up a sense of anticipation for the next piece, Mr. Janszen said. “It’s the type of show that grows on you. We don’t see a lot of Chinese dance, [so] it grows on you. You see one [performance] and you want to see what’s coming up, what’s coming up.”
Shen Yun is renowned for its classical Chinese dancers, awarding winning soloists, and the innovative, interactive digital projections on the stage background transports the audience into magically places and regions, according to the company’s website.
“What is really neat and really unique is how they combine the [digital] film with the actor,” Mr. Janszen said, referring to the figures on the projected backdrop seemingly coming to life when a dancer takes over the role.
Classical Chinese dance is a unique and complete dance system involving leaps, turns, flips and tumbling moves. In fact, gymnastic grew out of classical Chinese dance.
Mr. Janszen was amazed of the skills of the dancers: “I like the acrobatics … but I’m amazed with how the girls dance and float. They almost look like they are floating, I mean it’s very unique.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra combines both Eastern and Western traditional instruments to make a harmonizing and interesting musically effect.
Mr. Jaszen expressed that this combination of East and West instruments was fantastic. “I used to play drums, years back, so I like the beat and everything else. I enjoyed the beat, really enjoyed it.”
After the performance, Mr. Jaszen expressed that the second half of Shen Yun built on the first. “The second part picked up more beauty, more grace, and uniformity between all the dancers.”
“It’s very unique how they can kind of float and make everything so easy. I mean, I think that’s a beauty of the whole show, how they move and how they move so gracefully,” he said.
Mrs. Janszen explained her take on the second half: “It seem to be very peaceful, polite, and graceful.”
Harmony was the theme the couple would use to best describe the show.
Reporting by Valerie Avore and Cat Rooney.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times publishes in 35
countries and in 21 languages. Subscribe to oure-newsletter.
