SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Choir Director Finds Immersive Beauty in Shen Yun’s Cultural Revival

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Choir Director Finds Immersive Beauty in Shen Yun’s Cultural Revival
Michael and Fiona Mellett enjoyed the evening performance of Shen Yun at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas, on Jan. 1, 2024. Sally Sun/The Epoch Times
HOUSTON—Michael and Fiona Mellett love the performing arts and have long wanted to see Shen Yun.

“It’s been like a long dream,” said Mrs. Mellett on New Year’s Day.

It had been at the top of her Christmas list for years, and she'd told her children every year that she would one day see it. “And today’s my day.”

“Today is the day,” Mr. Mellett agreed.

The Melletts both sing, and Mr. Mellett is the vocal director of Lakewood Church, the largest church in the United States. The megachurch can see some 45,000 attendees a week, meeting in a stadium where Mr. Mellett conducts a 300-piece choir.

The Shen Yun performance at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts was no less immersive, they said.

“I love to see all of the colors and the multimedia. That was incredible. The way that they bring the two together. Really, really an amazing evening,” Mr. Mellett said. “So gorgeous.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company and sets a unique stage with its patented backdrop technology that brings performers from soaring above the clouds to deep below the sea.
Each of Shen Yun’s eight groups also travels with a unique orchestra that incorporates the ancient Chinese pipa and erhu, and a typical Shen Yun program includes vocal and erhu soloists as well as a dozen dance vignettes.

“It made us feel part of it, part of the traditions, part of the culture. It was a beautiful experience, really,” Mr. Mellett said.

Mrs. Mellett enjoyed the music and the beauty and added that Shen Yun’s mission was equally impressive.

“The whole experience, and what [Shen Yun] is doing for the whole people of China, it’s powerful and necessary,” she said.

Formed in 2006, Shen Yun has a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through dance and music. For five millennia, the ancient Chinese believed their culture was divinely inspired. It was only in 1949 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power and sought to replace traditional culture with violence and atheism.
Today, Shen Yun seeks to show the world “China before communism.”

Courage and Faith

Mrs. Mellett explained that 25 years ago, her mother traveled to China to smuggle Bibles into the country, so she was well aware of the oppression that communism ushered into China.
In Shen Yun’s performance, she saw courage and faith.

“We believe in truth, and we believe in justice. And we believe that it’s important to be able to explain and make people aware in a way that you bring them in—it’s beautiful,” she said.

Mrs. Mellett said Shen Yun told the truth about China beautifully.

“You bring them in, and you make them feel,” she said. “It’s lovely. And give them a perspective of all that is precious and wonderful. But then tell them the hard parts too ... and to help the people understand what really being Chinese is all about.”

Mr. Mellett added that from the United States, they could see the situation clearly and hoped to “see China return to its roots.”

“So that it’s able to be free,” he said.

With reporting by Sally Sun
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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