PHILADELPHIA—Narendra Maharaj, a software engineer, was deeply touched by Shen Yun Performing Arts’ performance at Merriam Theater Saturday afternoon.
“It’s wonderful. The show is absolutely uplifting. It is deeply spiritual,” an emotional Mr. Maharaj choked up while talking about the performance.
New York-based Shen Yun brings to life five millennia of Chinese civilization the culture and history of which are interpreted by dancers trained in the sophisticated techniques of Chinese classical dance as well as folk and ethnic dances.
Mr. Maharaj thought the whole production was very touching. “It’s the greatest show I have ever seen,” he said. “It’s spiritually uplifting. It makes you alive; it makes you happy.”
“Not everything makes you happy. You can watch a movie, and it can make you happy and cry in the movie as well, but this is a live performance. This is something that human beings do,” Mr. Maharaj continued.
“On stage, there is no gimmicks, there’s no wires, there is nothing extra behind them, [just] regular human beings. In a movie theatre, […] there are special effects, there are all kinds of things that they can try to do to evoke an emotion from you, [but] this is pure! There is nothing else behind, it’s just human beings, men or women, standing right there, and what they do comes right out at you. Their spiritual beings come right out at you.”
Shen Yun aims to revive traditional Chinese culture, which is deeply based upon values such as benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity. Many of the dances carry themes that reflect these values.
Mr. Maharaj thinks that a great theme of the performance was the message that we should seize our opportunities as human life is temporary.
Another great theme, he said, was that “there’s a lot of persecution against people for what they believe—it’s not an obvious thing, you won’t see it in the news every day, you won’t see it in CNN, you won’t see it in New York Times, you won’t see it on NBC. But it is there.”
Mr. Maharaj was referring to the pieces that raise awareness about the plight of spiritual practice Falun Dafa, which has, since July 20, 1999, been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. The meditation practice is based on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.
We shouldn’t ignore issues like this, Mr. Maharaj said. “It is there, and it is not going to go away until I, and everybody else, put a stop to it. And this is a start. This is a very good start.”
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3WTKCEA4tE[/video]
