NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Josh Croft, a filmmaker, producer, and actor; and Jessica Hill, a dancer, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Feb. 24.
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Mr. Croft, who shared that it was Ms. Hill who suggested seeing the performance. “This is very beautiful.”
New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006. Since its inception, Shen Yun has expanded to eight-equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously. Its mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and the beauty of “China before communism” through authentic classical Chinese dance and music.
“This was just a very nice way to enjoy an afternoon, seeing experiences that we don’t get nowadays,” Mr. Croft added. “It’s very traditional. Makes you think of much simpler times of less worry, less stress … [and] more beauty in the world.”
“I think everybody needs some kind of cultural experience now that you’re not getting with social media, just the brief snippets of news clips and people trying to compromise long artistic things into something very short,” he said.
“This took commitment from everyone involved, including an audience, and it’s nice to see people of every ethnicity and any kind of background coming to see a show like this and that it’s available for anyone to see.”
As a dancer herself, Ms. Hill was impressed by the dancers’ techniques and their synchronicity.
“The entire production from the artistic portion, the acting portions, to how ultimately synchronized everybody was, that was one of the most impressive things that I’ve ever seen before.”
Ms. Hill also shared what she felt was the message within Shen Yun’s performance.
“That’s a message that everyone here could really listen to, to know that we’re in our own little bubble here,” Mr. Croft said. “To be able to come to see this show and to think of the historical significance that this means to a lot of Chinese people that may not ever get to see something like this—I think that’s important to recognize that you’re just privileged to see a show like this.”
Ms. Croft also felt that Shen Yun’s message was important for today’s society.
“Even though it is very historical and going thousands of years back, it tells a message that traditional things are important to remember, but not necessarily something that can’t change. Traditional messages like this are more of not preserving tradition [or] of saying we need to go back to how things were, but to remember how things were to appreciate how they were … and to continue it.”
