AUSTIN, Texas—Brett Norsworthy and her boyfriend Brendan Shipp watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Long Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 5.
“I didn’t want to leave,” said Ms. Norsworthy. “I didn’t want to go. I was sad it was over. It was so beautiful.”
Ms. Norsworthy said that
the performance was “sensational, absolutely incredible, [and] did not disappoint.”
Despite having seen Shen Yun before, Ms. Norsworthy said that “this [was] a whole new experience.”
Based in New York,
Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and is now the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception, Shen Yun has grown from one to eight equally-sized companies that tour the world simultaneously.
Shen Yun’s program consists of several dance vignettes, as well as story-based dances. Ms. Norsworthy said that she found the stories moving, touching, and heartfelt.
Some of the story-based dances are set in modern-day China and depict the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of followers of
Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
“A lot of people don’t know about the Falun Gong being persecuted in China,” said Ms. Norsworthy. “I think that we’re very sheltered here, so we don’t have to face that very often. We’re still very privileged and lucky, and it’s good that you can bring that information—to the people.”
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and present the beauty of China before communism. Ms. Norsworthy said that she felt it important for Americans to understand what a
communist regime looked like.
“[It’s] very scary, you know. I feel like they don’t, they don’t quite understand …Very few people really grasp that,” she said.
Ms. Norsworthy acknowledged Shen Yun’s
educational value as well.
“[Shen Yun is] very educational,” she said. “It’s so pretty, but [also] spiritually touching and informative.”
According to Shen Yun’s website, traditional
Chinese culture is rooted in the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and the Chinese people believed that their culture was a gift from the heavens. Ms. Norsworthy shared that she felt a divine presence throughout the performance and that a message she got from watching Shen Yun is that “we need to hold on to our freedom, but our freedom comes from the divine.”
Reporting by Sonia Wu and Wandi Zhu.
