WASHINGTON—Video engineer John Gabriel attended the Shen Yun performance, hosted by Washington’s Kennedy Center Opera House on January 23, and said it was “overall, ethereal.”

As a professional in the field of video, he admired Shen Yun’s innovative digitally projected backdrops. He said, “The pictures on the backdrop were fantastic. It was wonderful.”

“I also loved the use of plain backlight. Everything was white. The color came from all the costumes.Then, there was the continuous movement, which was fantastic. I can’t describe it in mere words.”

It was different than ordinary staging. “The lighting was great. The show didn’t use traditional techniques with theater lighting. It was all emanating from the performers. It was great.”

Mr. Gabriel was interested in the diversity and change in the performance; that everything kept changing throughout the show, “Even the costumes and the kind of dances, it was never the same throughout the show. It varied a lot.”

Then, there were “the different histories. It felt as the show brought to its audience scenes from different regions, which is great. One gets a quick taste of everything.”

The Shen Yun website states, “In a collection of short pieces, audiences travel from the Himalayas to tropical lake-filled regions.”

Mr. Gabriel noted a deeper theme of human rights in the narratives and said the message throughout was “what is forbidden and what is not, so that was great.”

“Artistically, the entire performance flowed very well.”

Reporting by NTD Television and Heide B. Malhotra

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.