NEW YORK—Jayesh Mehta is in the event management business but nothing he has experienced prepared him for Shen Yun Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
“I haven’t seen a performance [company] like this ever in my life before,” he said. “This is far too good.
“Its amazing. I loved it,” he added.
Mr. Mehta saw the New York-based performing arts company with his wife and children last year and enjoyed it so much that he returned to New York’s Lincoln Center to see the 2013 performance on April 28.
“Shen Yun is an amazingly beautiful, coordinated, awesome production,” he said searching for words to describe the show.
Shen Yun is dedicated to the revival of China’s 5,000-year divine culture, which was all but wiped out by the brutal years of the Cultural Revolution.
“Humanity’s treasure was nearly lost, but through breathtaking music and dance, Shen Yun is bringing back this glorious culture,” the company’s website says.
Mehta said Shen Yun performances have universal appeal. “It’s the language of music and dance. ... It’s beautiful, entertaining, and meditative as well,” he said.
A specialist in arts and cultural events for the Indian community, Mehta was host to judges for a dance competition in the region and brought them as guests to see the show.
“What could be better than bringing them to this Shen Yun show,” he said.
But it was also the historical and educational aspects of Shen Yun that interested Mehta.
“Chinese culture and its rich cultural heritage is brought out,” he said. “This is the best way of educating the people and passing along the legacy.”
For Pakistani journalist Manzor Hussain, also in the audience at the Lincoln Center, it is the particularly Chinese features of Shen Yun that appealed to him.
“It shows the nature, the reality of the difference between the East and the West,” he said.
Mr. Hussain was particularly impressed with the quality of the performances.
“The performers … are really exemplary,” he said. “It shows they are really up to the mark.”
In this way Hussain said he felt connected to Shen Yun. “I am feeling I am not sitting, I am with them,” he said endeavoring to explain that connection.
He said Shen Yun brings unique insights from the East that he believes are important for Americans to experience.
It’s a “different kind of [experience] for the people of this land of opportunity,” he said.
With reporting by NTD Television and Shar Adams
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. The next performances in the northeastern United States are in Philadelphia May 3-5. 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.
