HIGH WYCOMBE, UK—When Fiona Janes walked into the theater Saturday afternoon, she was unaware that there was persecution of faith taking place in China associated with the dancers she was about to see perform onstage.
The classical Chinese dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts is world-famous for its high production value. While its dozens of dancers flow as one onstage in gorgeous costumes, a live orchestra blends Western and Chinese instruments to amp up the drama with enchanting sound. Meanwhile, a fully animated digital backdrop transports the audience through mythical Chinese worlds.
But behind the high production value, the dancers of this New York-based company are on an urgent mission. They train in the art of classical Chinese dance—not only to entertain, but also to raise awareness about ongoing human rights abuses in China.
“That was quite spellbinding, really,” Mrs. Janes, a former educator, said of what she watched today. “The story behind it, and what have you, was something that I wasn’t aware of.”
The scene in question depicts a young man who follows the peaceful Falun Gong faith and is captured by officers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), leading to his being abused and having his eyes removed surgically as punishment.
Seeing this really “brought home to me the reality of what is still going on,“ said Mrs. Janes’s husband, Malcolm Janes, who worked in telecoms but is now retired. ”We’re Christian, so we’re very keen on the care of the people and care of our world.”
This afternoon was a moment where the Janeses converged with the dancers through their shared values. For 20 years, the artists of Shen Yun have been working to revive “China before communism,” and the traditional values that were “almost lost” following the devastating Cultural Revolution. That entails rekindling kindness and compassion.
“It’s very important, [given] the state of the world at the moment,“ Mrs. Janes said. ”[We’ve] got to be compassionate and open to other people’s opinions and ways of expressing things, and [sharing] what have you.”
On this same afternoon, Ruth Wanjiku, who works with companies to adopt digital technologies, also watched Shen Yun. She, too, was spellbound by the performance.
One of the big cultural lessons Ms. Wanjiku absorbed was about Shen Yun’s specialty: classical Chinese dance. “What I learned was that acrobatics come from China,” she said. Throughout the performance, the dancers execute flips and all kinds of leaps and tumbles. While this dance style hails back to Chinese martial artists millennia ago, many of its moves were later adopted by modern forms, such as gymnastics.
Ms. Wanjiku also said Shen Yun’s revival of tradition jives with her values.
“I think we’ve lost a lot of the traditional values; we’ve been obsessed with modernity,” she said. “But obviously, I’m a Christian and one of the [Shen Yun hosts] said, ‘You reap what you sow,’ which is in the Bible.”
