HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Actor Rob Dean and his friend Ivar Johnson thoroughly enjoyed the first of Shen Yun’s four consecutive shows at the Dolby Theatre on April 5.
“My God. [They’re] superhumans as far as I’m concerned,” he exclaimed.
“Despite [the show’s] spectacular nature, the dancers themselves make us come to them. They [just perform] and what [their movements] mean—we look at and we decide. They don’t force it; that’s saying a lot.”
“Whenever a performance makes me come to them, I’m always thinking, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ That’s about the best you can hope for when you go to a theater,” he said.
This season, the company is slated to perform in over 200 cities worldwide. They can be expected to return with a brand-new set of music and choreography every year.
A stage performer himself, Mr. Dean understood firsthand the hard work that’s necessary to pull off a show like this.
“I’ve been on stage many, many, many times and the concentration it must take to make everything exactly perfect without making it look like a slog … because they look like they’re having an actual good time,” he said.
“That’s hard when they’re doing this for years. A long run in a play is usually considered death because you just wind up doing the same thing every night, and you’re not thinking anymore. So, the audience is left behind a little bit. That doesn’t happen here.”
Referring to Shen Yun’s story-based dance bringing attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution and illegal organ harvest from the people of faith in China, Mr. Dean said, “It really got me.”
“I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s not what I expected, but what’s important is that [the people] stop being persecuted. I can see under the whole show that there’s a yearning,” he explained.
“The heart in the organ box, the forced organ harvesting—I’m really glad it’s [presented] here, and everybody’s seeing it because I don’t think a lot of people actually believe it. It’s hard to believe that there’s such evil.”
“It takes a lot of serious effort, so that in itself is spiritual to me. The [performers] are so perfect, they’re so in step. The show is on a higher calling; there is a higher purpose to it and everyone is attached to it. I didn’t know that, and now I do,” he stated.
“I really, really respect the spirituality coming off the stage in massive waves because to be this devoted to an art form that is rooted in the past is a spiritual exercise in itself.”
