However, after attending the company’s evening performance at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 16, she said it was “definitely worth it.”
“I love the dances and the stories. [The performance] is like a history of China. There’s a lot that I didn’t know. I really enjoyed it,” she shared.
“It was very dramatic. [There was a story where] the guy goes blind and then he recovered his sight because he believed in God. That was really nice.”
Summing up her feelings, Mrs. Svidler added, “I’m going to highly recommend everybody to come and see it. It’s just a really great experience.”
Her husband, Mariano, a cameraman, and their daughter, who joined them for the evening, couldn’t agree more.
Mr. Svidler enjoyed the spiritual dimension of the production, noting that “everything—the movement, the colors, the music—is really powerful.”
Reflecting on the artists’ mission to bring back traditional culture and raise awareness for the ongoing human rights issue in present-day China, he said, “all the messages they have [are about] we want peace, and we need peace.”
As a cameraman, he was very impressed by the dancers’ precision. “Every movement of the arms, of the legs and everything, [even] of the head, it’s like wow,” Mr. Svidler said.
He hopes to see Shen Yun again in the future.
“It’s really good to know that every year they change all the performances. Good to know.”
