NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—Former dance studio owner Carla Way was captivated by the beauty of Shen Yun Performing Arts’ dancers when she attended the company’s opening performance at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 15.
“It took years and years and years for them to acquire such perfection and grace and agility. I’m very, very amazed with it.”
As a fellow dancer, Ms. Way understood the immense dedication and work that goes in to enable a team of dancers to move perfectly in sync with each other.
“It takes so much time. On top of that, every muscle in your body is worked [when] you complete an extension and jump and turn. That takes so much—I don’t even know how much training that took for them to get to that point,” she shared.
“I was one of those people trying to stretch every minute I could and choreographing constantly when I was younger. I never got to that level.”
“Good dances do that,” she said. “I think the spirituality—probably passed down for a very, very long time in China. [They] talk of having good karma, being a good person, and helping others.”
“You should just want to help people, but you never know what it means to someone,” she said. “So, it’s so important to give love to everyone. … Being kind, being good, and actually seeing other people’s challenges and the things they’re going through.”
The piece that left the strongest impression on her was the show’s finale, a story depicting that when people are kind to one another and stay true to themselves, hope and help will arrive even when unlooked for.
“There was a guy, he was pretending to be an old man, scamming for money, but turned out to be a young man. So, he was completely scamming, but when [the main characters] found out, they still treated him with love, and helped him instead of resenting him,” Ms. Way described.
“They realized that he deserved love like anyone else, you know, and probably giving love to someone like that makes them more likely to be good.”
