NEW YORK—Who better to appreciate a Shen Yun performance--a world-renowned performance that includes classical Chinese dance, a one-of-a-kind orchestra, as well as the revival of the bel canto technique---than someone in the profession itself?
Enter singer/songwriter Princess Heslop, who saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at New York’s famous Lincoln Center on March 2 and was clearly moved by it---especially the singing.
“They were excellent, they were beautiful,” said Ms. Heslop. “As another singer, you just sit and enjoy and feel yourself doing the notes as well and checking how you might express the same thing. So it’s beautiful. It’s an incredible, refreshing experience.”
The performance featured three solo vocalists: tenor Guan Guimin, bass Qu Yue, and soprano Geng Haolan; and each was met with explosive applause and, in Ms. Geng’s case, an encore.
Beyond showcasing the performers’ talents, Shen Yun combines it all with vivid costumes and a unique, interactive backdrop that makes for quite an experience.
“The colors, are so healing,” said Ms. Heslop. “People forget that color changes your mood, it can be used as therapy.”
There was also a bridge between music and color as seen in the performance, that Ms. Heslop felt.
“I think music allows you to tap into the unseen. Sound is apparently unseen, although when sound is brought into a realm that you can see it, it has color. When you know that about sound and its power, because everything is vibration, everything is energy. We’re all just packed energy walking around,” she said.
And the energy she felt from Shen Yun was something she called enchanting.
Shen Yun has been wowing audiences all over the world with a journey through 5,000 years of rich Chinese culture for the last decade. Through a symphony that combines East and West music, beautiful vocal music, and classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun aims to recreate for the audience a time and place where the world was full of magic and splendor.
That place is known today as China, though over the last half-century, communist rule has tried to erase most of that traditional culture. Shen Yun was formed by artists around the world to revive it, and the result is an audience that can’t get enough of it.
“So many aspects I found engaging, enchanting,” said Ms. Heslop, adding that she would need another viewing. “You’re enchanted with that particular section, then the new section comes up and you’re enchanted with that, and you thought you liked that one better but you like this one as well.
“All of it is so beautifully put together.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Dave Martin
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
