BALTIMORE—Christina Najymarosi, an oncologist, and her fiancé Laszlo Szigethi, an engineer, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore on Feb. 10. Mr. Szigethi said they had purchased their tickets as soon as they saw that
Shen Yun would be performing in Baltimore.
“It’s admirable that everything that we can see today comes back from this 5,000-years culture,” Ms. Najymarosi said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists who fled China’s oppressive communist government. Shen Yun’s mission is to
revive traditional Chinese culture and to show audiences around the world the beauty of “China before communism.”
According to the Shen Yun website, China was once known as “the land of the divine,” and Chinese culture was founded on the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. However, these beliefs were abolished when the
Chinese Communist Party seized power and enforced its atheist ideology.
Some of the story-based dances in Shen Yun’s program are set in modern-day China, and depict the Chinese government’s
persecution of followers of Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
“When we saw that piece, I [had] goosebumps, because I could relate to it,” Ms. Najymarosi said.
Ms. Najymarosi and Mr. Szigethi shared that they both came from communist Hungary, and Ms. Najymarosi said that her family had experienced religious persecution as well. She expressed her belief that everyone has the right to religious freedom.
Ms. Najymarosi also said she enjoyed Shen Yun’s patented
animated backdrop, which allows its performers to seamlessly move between the stage and the mystical scenes in the animated background.
“The entire stage design was fantastic,” she said. “It was beautifully done.”
Mr. Szigethi said that Shen Yun’s beauty really stood out to him, and that he could understand the performance just by seeing the beauty of it.
“We don’t need words to understand what’s happening,” Mr. Szigethi said.
“Dance is always an international language,” Ms. Najymarosi said. “You don’t have to speak the language of the country of origin of those people who are performing. You can understand it; you can be part of it; you can feel it not just with your eyes [but also] with your heart, with your soul.”
Reporting by Sherry Dong and Wandi Zhu.
