DENVER—Jesus Hernandez and Aisha Jacob took in a Shen Yun Performing Arts show at Denver’s Performing Arts Complex when they performed on Feb. 22. The New York-based premier classical Chinese dance company has three companies that travel around the world simultaneously stunning audiences with its all-new 2012 world tour.
Shen Yun has performed in Denver five years in a row. For Mr. Hernandez, this was his second time watching a Shen Yun performance.
“Oh, it’s great! Excellent!” he said at Denver’s Buell Theatre.
Mr. Hernandez, a mechanical engineer from Mexico, brought his friend Ms. Jacob, a music and voice teacher, and a singer from Switzerland to see Shen Yun for her first time.
“I loved it, it was beautiful,” said Ms. Jacob about Shen Yun’s performance.
“It’s magical really. I think it’s so flowing in movement and it’s really so beautiful. The music was great and the orchestra was fantastic,” she said.
“The orchestra was excellent. It’s an excellent orchestra,” said Mr. Hernandez.
Shen Yun’s orchestra plays all-original compositions, seamlessly blending instruments of the East, like the erhu, dizi, pipa, and suona with instruments of the West.
The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization, according to Shen Yun’s website.
“The blend of the instruments, you know mixing the occidental instruments with the Oriental, I thought that was beautiful,” Ms. Jacob said.
Mr. Hernandez said, “Indeed. The other thing is the use of fabrics, the costumes, how they use the fabrics to go with the dance,” and Ms. Jacob added, “to give this flowing movement. It’s gorgeous.”
Reporting by Jennifer Liang and Kelly Ni.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will be perform in Little Rock on Feb. 27 and 28 at the Robinson Center Music Hall.
For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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