ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Mike Snyder, a company manager, and his wife, Diana, a teacher, were wowed by the beauty of Shen Yun Performing Arts when they attended the company’s opening performance at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts. The company is slated to present three more performances over the weekend.
“It’s amazing. It’s just beautiful,” Mr. Snyder said. “The costumes, the dancing—it’s like a dream how flowing everything is—very, very smooth. It kind of seemed like [the dancers] were on skates, moving along so smoothly across the stage.”
“I’m just blown away by the aesthetics. Very, very beautiful.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun artists are highly trained in classical Chinese dance, an art form with a history spanning thousands of years, celebrated for its athleticism and expressive power.
According to the company’s website, the classical Chinese dance seen in China today is heavily mixed with military and modern styles. Only at Shen Yun can the audience experience it in its purest form, preserved as it was passed down through generations.
The production is comprised of a series of short pieces that takes its audience on a journey through the dynasties and across the vast regions of China. Using classical Chinese, folk, and ethnic dances, as well as solo musical performances, Shen Yun tells tales from ancient times to the modern day.
Although Mrs. Snyder was not very familiar with Chinese culture, she had no trouble following the storylines of the short dances that brought to life legends from ancient times to the present day.
“It’s interesting,” she said. “The Monkey[King] was funny, and the man on the donkey—I was surprised at how funny it was.”
She also praised the company’s use of a 3D digital backdrop, which collaborates seamlessly with the performers on stage to create a magical illusion and enhance storytelling.
“I thought it was beautiful. I liked the use of the screen with them jumping in and out of the projection screen. I like that a lot,” she said.
Mr. Snyder also found the patented technology “pretty amazing.”
“It was really entertaining,” he stated. “It was very interesting that they incorporated that [to] bring people in and out of it.”
Reflecting on the artists’ mission to revive traditional culture, Mrs. Snyder said she appreciated how reverent and respectful Shen Yun is toward China’s heritage.
“I like the emphasis on positivity. The message [is] very positive,” she said. “The athleticism and the smoothness and the costumes and the music all worked really well together to tell the story, and the mood of [the performance] was really nice. It’s very polished.”
“The best way to describe it would be ... like watching a dream,” Mr. Snyder added.
