WASHINGTON—Watching the classical Chinese dancers of Shen Yun perform live onstage was a pinch-me moment for the joint surgeon John McConnel, who studies the flexible limits of human limbs for a living.
McConnel—who puts athletes’ hips back together by day, and who saw the New York-based dance company at the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opera house in Washington on Friday night—called the dancers’ joints “hyper-mobile.”
“The range of motion of the joints, the shoulders, the hips, the knees, the ankles, is quite extraordinary,“ the surgeon told The Epoch Times. ”It’s fantastic.”
He sees a lot of dancers and gymnasts who “have a certain amount of hypermobility or increased laxity of their joints,“ he said. ”You can’t do that without a tremendous amount of commitment and dedication.”
Shen Yun stems from an Eastern tradition, of course, while McConnel’s practice of medicine is based on Western methodologies. But in a profession where understanding flexibility is key, he’s fascinated by an ancient Chinese concept from Daoism—the principle of yin and yang.
Classical Chinese dance “is kind of the balance of the opposites,” he said.
Shen Yun uses this dance style to retell stories and myths about virtuous heroes, like the Monkey King, as well as stories that highlight traditions of past ages. These traditions were nearly destroyed in China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, and now Shen Yun’s mission seeks to stir a Chinese cultural renaissance through dance.
The show cannot be seen in China, however, since many of its dancers belong to the ancient spiritual practice Falun Dafa. That’s why Shen Yun is based in upstate New York.
Although Falun Dafa is being persecuted by the Chinese regime currently in power, McConnel is, after seeing Shen Yun’s dancers, hopeful about what the future holds for humanity. “You can’t suppress the human spirit or truthfulness,” he said, speaking of the message he received from watching Shen Yun.
He said he was moved by one segment of the performance that tells a story from modern China. It tells of a Falun Dafa believer who is maimed by communist officials because of his belief.
“The artists really show their passion, like they’re dancing with their soul and their life,“ he said. ”You can get their energy. You can see their faces. You can see their smile. They’re doing this because they love doing it. And I personally always appreciate when somebody is really putting passion [into] whatever it is that they’re doing. And you can certainly see it and feel it.”
Reporting by Terri Wu and Michael Wing.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
