PHILADELPHIA—The atmosphere was filled with excitement as the curtain rose for Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Miller Theater on May 7. Will and Lynn Landolo especially enjoyed the dancing.
According to Mr. Landolo, who runs an IT consulting company, “It’s a very colorful and beautiful dance. I like dance. It’s just graceful. I love dance because it’s so athletic.”
“[For] really good dancers, it’s all about the grace and flow, and taking athleticism and controlling it through dance. It’s just beautiful,” he said.
Mrs. Landolo, a dance teacher for 40 years, said, “I really love the dance. It’s so very graceful and they’re so in unison, which is wonderful. And when they change, it’s like they’re floating instead of walking. And then, of course, the acrobatic part. I love that, too.”
Mrs. Landolo taught ballet, tap, and jazz for all ages in a studio and noted the contrast and similarities with Chinese classical dance.
“I like it very, very, very much,” she said. “You can tell that it’s so graceful, and you can tell that the ballet is definitely in there. That’s what I always told all my dancers: If you have ballet technique, the other dances are going to be more beautiful.”
“It’s interesting. ... Then you started adding more elements to it, like the water splashing—the person dove in the water, and you can see the water splash, and the person came out of the water—I’m like, okay, now I see why it was worth a patent. I saw you got a patent on it,” he said.
Mr. Landolo was interested in the dancers’ background, and that they came from all over the world. Shen Yun hosts explain that the performers are trained in Upstate New York.
“That’s what I’m getting from what they’re saying on the stage. I think that’s a good thing, if there are stories that you want to get out, and the stories make total sense. The dance conveys what the commentators are saying that the story’s about.”
Mrs. Landolo expressed the importance of dance in keeping the culture: “I feel like it’s a way to keep your Chinese culture.”
“I think it’s very, very sad that that part of your history cannot be seen today in mainland China,” she said.
