SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Truth and Meaning in Shen Yun Lyrics

Feb 01, 2015
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Truth and Meaning in Shen Yun Lyrics
Brandi Adams in the lobby of Mahalia Jackson Theatre after Shen Yun's performance in New Orleans on Jan. 31, 2015. (Mary Silver/Epoch Times)

NEW ORLEANS—Shen Yun Performing Arts, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, continued to mesmerize audiences in New Orleans on its second day at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts.

Along with Chinese dance and musical performances, the Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company—one of the four companies of Shen Yun—includes two vocalists who use the bel canto style to sing Chinese lyrics. Audience member Brandi Adams felt the singers were speaking to her soul when they were performing. “It was truth,” she said.

The songs and the stories addressed the deepest parts of human life, “why we are here,” Ms. Adams said. We are here to be kind to each other, as in the dance “the Power of Compassion,” she added. The dance is set in modern China, and describes a situation in which a man who is being attacked stops to help his attacker after he falls and breaks his leg. “Understanding and sincerity pave the way to an unexpected blessing,” according to the program.

The song “Awaken” includes the line “to return to heaven is your destiny.” Ms. Adams took those words to heart. She felt that they expressed the real meaning of human life. She said she felt uplifted and full of joy.

Ms. Adams wore an elegant and feminine pair of high wedge shoes in a floral print with the same colors as this year’s Shen Yun poster: yellow, pink, turquoise, green, and white. But as she arrived at the theater, a gust of wind tore the ticket from her hand. “I’m a natural runner,” she said, so she sprinted to save the ticket, tripped, and fell. Her hand was freshly bandaged, after she got first aid from theater staff.

“I am fine now.” She said she felt “happy and peaceful, floating,” after experiencing the beauty and kindness in Shen Yun.

Ms. Adams saw Shen Yun for the first time on Jan. 31 at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre, and she brought her mother and father and her little daughter, who wore a festive red dress and nestled in her grandfather’s arms. The dance that opens the second half of Shen Yun is “Phoenixes of the Sapphire Paradise,” and in it “Phoenix fairies, dressed in azure skirts and fluttering capes, take flight as eternal sovereigns of a boundless sky.”

Ms. Adams said that dance spoke to her deeply, and that she has such a strong affinity for Phoenixes that she almost named her daughter Phoenix. “She was as good as gold” during the performance, said Ms. Adams with a tender smile.

To the artists of Shen Yun, the musicians, and dancers, Ms. Adams said, “Thank you.”

Bayardo Reyes brought his teenaged nephew to see Shen Yun. Mr. Reyes is a microbiologist who runs Domino’s sugar laboratory. He said he liked to consider a spiritual lesson in the dance “The Fable of the Magic Brush.” The supernatural paintbrush that made anything it painted come alive worked well for a kindhearted artist, but backfired for the thugs who stole it from him.

Mr. Reyes said, “It just teaches that it depends on your state of mind, if you were greedy it would not show up what he wanted.”

“The one with the banner, about the tolerance,” he said, with emphasis, referring to “the Power of Compassion.” In it, “even passersby were inspired by [Falun Dafa’s] principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.” He was glad the artists told a story of power misused and of injustice.

His nephew, Franco Nunez, said “I thought it was really well executed. I just loved it overall, I thought it was really good.”

To the artists of Shen Yun, Mr. Reyes said, “Keep up the good work, it was a very fascinating show.”

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reaction since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.