MELBOURNE, Australia—A beautiful sunny day in Melbourne was reflected inside the Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre on Feb. 21. Shen Yun Performing Arts was on stage, and it was a very uplifting experience for school teacher Tim Ellis from Galen Catholic College, Wangaratta, as he connected with the beauty he saw and felt during the performance.
“The inner beauty coming from the dancers, it’s just connects me with something very special beyond divine. It’s very moving,” he said.
He said he felt the spirituality of the culture coming through the performance.
“It just made me feel as if it’s almost bringing us on the way home. It’s making us all feel together, we are all one people in the world, and we’ve got a connection with something divine.”
Shen Yun takes its audiences on a 5,000-year Chinese cultural journey—back to a time when China was known as “The Divine Land”, according to Shen Yun’s website.
The Divine Land was a place where deities and mortals co-existed. For millennia, society was built upon principles from Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, and the culture was said to have come down from the heavens.
“Sharing it with the rest of the world, I think is wonderful. Shen Yun are doing something very special. I just wish so many people especially young people could actually experience Shen Yun,” said Mr. Ellis.
Through music and classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun aims to bring the heart of ancient China’s culture—a culture that valued principles such as mindfulness of others, truthfulness, and respect for gods—to the world.
“Truth, compassion as they say … it’s almost any answer to the problems of the world … It’s there, and we just need to see it.”
The company website states, “Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system.”
“From the very opening part I got very emotional because I think it touches things inside us. That’s what the dancers give us because they are coming from an inner beauty, an authenticity, and sincerity, in the way they give to everybody through their creativity and their hard work and it all comes out in the dancing,” said Mr. Ellis.
The effect Shen Yun has had on Mr. Ellis is profound. This is the second year he has seen the performance.
“You just have to come and see it, don’t hold back and think ’maybe.' Last year, I pressed the button and bought the ticket and it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life because it has made a significant difference to who I am. It’s just given me something that was kind of there, but maybe I was waiting for Shen Yun to get it out of me,” he said.
“I think it’s given me a confidence too. An awareness, an acceptance of self, an understanding of beauty in all its forms. Shen Yun brings you alive, puts you in contact with who you are, who you can be and who you want to be,” he said.
Reporting by NTD Television and Chris Ford
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.
