SAN FRANCISCO—Shen Yun’s third sold-out performance in a row kicked off Sunday afternoon, with blue skies to boot.
Elizabeth Pande was among the theatergoers, at The War Memorial Opera House, for the afternoon performance who was particularly impressed with Shen Yun’s classical Chinese dancing and use of their animated backdrop.
“I liked the mix of the classical dancing and the high tech imagery. The soaring into heaven—it was cool. I liked it. It’s well-done,” said Ms. Pande who works as a director of finance for a venture capital firm.
The Shen Yun website states best about what theatergoers will experience: “A Shen Yun performance features the world’s foremost classically trained dancers, a unique orchestra blending East and West, and dazzling animated backdrops—together creating one spectacular performance.”
Ms. Pande elaborated on the Shen Yun orchestra, which combines both classical Eastern and Western instruments and accompanies each dance piece.
“The music was beautiful,” said Ms. Pande.
“The production value was incredible,” she added.
Ms. Pande went on to say, “I was surprisingly impressed by the performance. … I really appreciated the message.”
Shen Yun’s website states, “In 2006, a group of leading classical Chinese artists came together in New York with one wish: to revive the true, divinely inspired culture of China and share it with the world.”
Shen Yun is currently unable to perform in Mainland China, because of restrictions placed on artists under communist rule.
Being based outside of China, Shen Yun is able to freely display the true traditional Chinese culture with the world.
Ms. Pande connected with this message and stated, “It’s very, very hopeful to see people really trying to keep the cultural elements alive and keep the traditional culture alive because that’s what’s beautiful, and that’s what will survive.”
As part of the Shen Yun performance, contemporary dances show the bravery and courage of practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful, spiritual mind-body discipline.
Ms. Pande also mentioned that she is now curious to learn more about Falun Gong after attending the Shen Yun performance.
“I would say it’s a great show, and I was really impressed!” she said.
When asked how she would explain the performance, Ms. Pande said, “That it was a much more—I think that people might think that it’s just dancing and music, but the fact that it has an interesting message—and I mean it was a flawless production.”
Ms. Pande plans to bring her friends to Shen Yun’s all-new performance next year.
“The dancers were perfect, the music was perfect, really high production value. So yeah, I'll bring a friend next year,” concluded Ms. Pande.
With reporting by Lily Lu
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.
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.
