Agnieszka Lechocińska, the choir director of the Łódź Grand Theatre said, “I’m seeing this performance for the first time, the first time in my life. It was an incredible experience. I really like traditional dance, especially the use of Chinese tradition.
“What is new for me is that the 3D screen is actually part of the performance—it’s not just a backdrop. The characters that appear on the screen later move onto the stage. You get the impression that everything is happening at the same time, the screen and the stage are connected. There is no separate background or decoration, everything is part of one performance. For me, this is a huge novelty. I’m seeing this for the first time, and I’ve seen many performances before, and I think this impressed me the most as a whole. It left an enormous impression.”
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional culture from “China before communism,” through a display of classical Chinese dance, music, and storytelling.
Urszula Świąder, the Wolsztyn district prosecutor said, “I think I was most impressed by the costumes, the attention to detail, and the perfect dancing. The fact that the dancers move with perfect timing, that they are fantastically prepared choreographically; that was probably the most visible, the most striking.”
“Truly great performances. Wonderful dance. What moved me the most was that you can understand the entire story just by watching the dance,” Magdalena Bieda, a doctor, said.
Ms. Świąder said “showing traditional Chinese culture, these traditional dances that we don’t often have a chance to see give us an opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and tradition.”
“I think that just as we Poles are believers and believe in God, it would also be wonderful for you Chinese if faith were allowed to flourish in China,” Ms. Bieda said. “I think it’s important to show what people in China dream about, since it is still a communist country. Freedom is something that should never be taken away from us. Freedom of choice, freedom of faith, freedom to believe, or not believe—this is our fundamental right, but also a gift.”
Ms. Lechocińska said the pieces about persecution of people of faith in China brought tears to her eyes. “I thought about how I would feel as an artist if I couldn’t return to my own country and sing or dance in my own culture. It is very difficult and almost unimaginable,” she said.
Each performance presents themes of spirituality, faith, and morality, values found at the core of traditional Chinese culture.
Ms. Andrzejewska said, “I listened carefully and read carefully. It’s about God, about returning to the Creator, about returning to spirituality, about erasing what communism did to us, what socialism did to us. I think it was a deep message.”
