“What touched me the most is the courage: physical, cultural, spiritual, moral. I find there’s a lot of courage. They dare to speak out, they dare to throw themselves onto the stage, and they dare to proclaim a number of values. And I find that truly magnificent,” Jean-Marie Lovey, Bishop of Sion, said.
Axelle Heimberg, a jeweler, said, “The colors are magnificent, it’s very elaborate. I really enjoyed the choreography. You travel with the music. In short, it’s an incredible success.”
“I think what touched me the most was really all of that magic,” Frédéric Saenger, a member of the Grand Council of Geneva, said. “For me, it’s really the sense of spectacle that drives me, and as I was saying, I’ve organized concerts myself, so I’m very sensitive to everything musical, everything artistic. And this magical dance and music performance really touched me and impressed me. Excellent dancers, very good musicians. There’s a real orchestra playing music that really touched us.”
Shen Yun simultaneously tours the world with eight different companies. Each company also features a full symphony orchestra that combines both traditional Chinese and classical Western instruments.
Council member Saenger said, “At one point, all the instruments started playing in succession to show the interweaving of cultures, and I found it particularly successful. The Western side and the very traditional Chinese aspect were truly wonderful. I let myself be carried away by the music quite often. I traveled a lot with the music, throughout those two and a half hours. It was magnificent.”
“The cultural aspect of the 5,000 years, it really moved me. These 5,000 years of culture and tradition, I’m quite touched by that because I’m someone who lives both in the modern world and who is also attached to certain traditions in the West. And I completely understand that in any country, people are attached to their traditions and culture. But here, there was also a rather universalist aspect that I really liked,” council member Saenger said.
Bishop Lovey added, “First, there’s extraordinary beauty, harmony, elegance. I find that this is already an absolutely superb value to highlight and defend in a rather harsh, difficult society. And if there were only that, it would already be an approach to absolute values. Beauty is an absolute value.
“And [Shen Yun] also dares to speak of the dimension of life, respect for life, attention to the less fortunate. All the realities of daily life are magnified by the music, dance, colors and harmony. And that is magnificent. It’s magnificent because I think something very profound in human life is brought to the surface. Precisely, this need for salvation is at the heart of Christianity. The fact that it comes to us as a gift, as grace, as an abundance. And it comes to us from elsewhere. All these things are present in the way the show is experienced.”
“It gives a message of hope. With all the wars and all the dramatic things happening in the world, it’s something that can give us hope and help us move forward in life,” Ms. Heimberg said.
Council member Saenger said, “We live in a rather chaotic world, and if we could bring a little more harmony, peace, and understanding to one another, we would have a lot to gain.”
“One of the missions of the Christian faith is to share [these values], to make it known, and to make it known through beauty. It’s a vehicle, it’s a way of doing it within our mission as well,” Bishop Lovey said.
Ms. Heimberg said, “I haven’t seen many shows but, really, this one, in terms of the colors, the music, and the beliefs it projects, is something truly magnificent and worth seeing. You have to go see it.”
