‘When the Curtain Came up It Was Magic’: Veteran Says About Shen Yun
Feb 04, 2023
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Charles Bloodworth enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Feb. 3, 2023. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Charles Bloodworth has been an infantryman, paratrooper, green beret, then lawyer. His father was in China in 1946 after World War II, until the communist revolution in China kicked him out. His trusted doctor is someone whose father lived through China’s Cultural Revolution.
So Mr. Bloodworth was happy to get the opportunity to experience the authentic heritage of China on Feb. 3, through Shen Yun Performing Arts, which he attended at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
“I can imagine it’s tremendous today, but I can imagine a thousand years ago this would have been absolutely stunning to someone in a village to see these dancers,” Mr. Bloodworth said.
“Oh, when the curtain came up it was magic,” he said. “The dancers floating in the clouds, and I was very impressed with the way they become part of the video. They seem to melt into the screen and step out of the screen. There was a wonderful effect. The music is right on point. But the dancers carry it—the athleticism!”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company, and classical Chinese dance is famous for its athleticism and expressivity. High-difficulty tumbling techniques including leaps, flips, and spins are basic components of this thousands-of-years-old art form, and Mr. Bloodworth described a number of feats he was impressed with during the performance.
“He jumps up and touches his feet and did it over and over and over ... And it was, is he ever going to get tired?” Mr. Bloodworth said with a laugh. “He must work out all the time.”
Joseph Taylor enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, on Feb. 3, 2023. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)
Also in the audience was Joseph Taylor, a retired physician, who sits on the board of several charity clinics. Mr. Taylor was also deeply impressed with the dance.
“It’s beautiful: Spectacular movements, choreography, costumes. And the use of the backdrop is spectacular,” he said.
For Mr. Taylor, Shen Yun embodied “tradition, perseverance, faith, hope.”
Though traditional culture was once nearly destroyed by the communist regime in China, after seeing Shen Yun, Mr. Taylor felt it was “something [that] will survive no matter what.”
