HIGH WYCOMBE, UK—Emese Szilagyi and her fiancé George Gilbert loved the traditional stories performed by Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Wycombe Swan Theatre on February 21.
Ms. Szilagyi, a business and data architect, said, “The dancers are amazing. I think that the entire performance is very beautiful,” Ms. Szilagyi said.
Shen Yun’s opening scene shows heavenly deities following the Creator to earth to save humanity. Ms. Szilagyi appreciated the universal values of traditional Chinese culture.
“That is also very clearly coming through, like the opening scene. It’s something that is personally keeping me quite occupied. What is the nature of the Divine, and are we part of it? If so, how are we part of it? It’s beautiful to see this coming through,” she said.
Mr. Gilbert is a university lecturer in Southampton. With his teaching background, Mr. Gilbert appreciated the educational value of Shen Yun.
“We’re learning quite a lot about Chinese values that maybe doesn’t always push through in the modern world too much. Of course, it’s at variance with the official [communist] Chinese narrative, isn’t it? This is China before communism.”
An audience favorite is the patented digital backdrop. “The animations are cool when people come in and out the screen,” Mr. Gilbert said.
Shen Yun performs stories from traditional Chinese culture in dance. Ms. Szilagyi thoroughly appreciated the dance stories, especially “The Legend of Master Zhang Guolao.”
“I really enjoyed the plays. I particularly liked the scene where they took that sage, the immortal, to the Emperor, and they didn’t recognize him, but quickly changed,” she said. She also liked “the way he moved. It was so unique, so interesting when he was playing the old immortal.”
Traditional Chinese culture is filled with spiritual lessons. Ms. Szilagyi said, “I really like some of the messages that are coming through about the culture.”
She appreciated the lessons in compassion, tolerance, and meditation, including inner balance. “That is coming across very clearly,” she said.
“I think it also requires that inner centeredness and inner calmness, because the way they move is so very graceful, as if they were made of air. They are floating across [the stage],” Ms. Szilagyi said.
The male and female dancers have qualities that Ms. Szilagyi appreciated, for example, “how the women dance compared to how the men dance. I think for them, it’s also like being very aerial, but keeping their balance really well. Otherwise, they would not be able to perform their movements.
“The colors, the visuals, are just so stunning. We’ve really been enjoying it,” Ms. Szilagyi said.
