HOUSTON—Mr. and Mrs. Garcia gave themselves a wonderful present for their 35th wedding anniversary. Accompanied by their daughter, they went to see Shen Yun Performing Arts at the elegant Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston.
Mr. Garcia, a Taekwondo instructor, said he came to the performance Dec. 29 to see “the essence of the Chinese tradition” and was not disappointed.
The mission of Shen Yun is to revive China’s 5000 years of traditional culture through the performing arts.
Shen Yun dances retell ancient myths and stories from classic literature that embody traditional values.
Mr. Garcia deeply appreciated the values of compassion, mercy, love, and courage he saw in the performance.
“It takes courage to stand up for what you believe in, or to hold onto values that maybe some other people think aren’t as important, like altruism, giving of yourself, doing for others,” he said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun is a non-profit which has four companies touring the globe annually but they have never performed in Mainland China due to repression by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Garcia said he felt proud that “Houston is part of perpetuating [a performance] like this … so that it survives and grows.”
“Something as innocent, as powerful as music and dance … can mean so much to traditions of people or generations of people,” he said.
“What a tragedy it is for that to be repressed or eliminated altogether.”
Mrs. Garcia, who had “just been dying to come and see the performance,” said it made her appreciate the arts a whole lot more.
“We’re so privileged, so blessed to live in this country, that we’re able to express ourselves [through] the performing arts,” she said.
“I really enjoyed their artistic ability and their graceful dancing; and their colorful costumes were just awesome,” she said.
“I thought it was beautiful, I mean it was very artistic and the colors I think really came alive in the show. All their costumes and the passion for their culture came through in the performance.
Shen Yun costume designers hand craft hundreds of costumes for each new season.
Mrs. Garcia was also struck by the spiritual aspect of the performance.
She said she saw a “desire for divine intervention to help their cause for freedom, and the arts.”
China was once known as The Divine Land, according to the Shen Yun website. “This profound name describes a land where deities and mortals coexisted and a belief that the divine transmitted a rich culture to the people of the earth.”
The family agreed that the Shen Yun performance was a vibrant, peaceful, passionate, beautiful, colorful, graceful and educational experience.
Reporting by June Fakkert and Cheryl Casati
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The 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.
