GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—When Rachel Siglow experienced Shen Yun Performing Arts at the DeVos Performance Hall on Feb. 21, she said she could feel the kindness of the people, and the beauty of the
traditional culture.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company, and Ms. Siglow felt the kindness and goodness of the human heart come out through this dance.
The beauty is expressed in the way that they dance, and the way that they sang their different beautiful songs, as well as the wonderful costumes. The costumes were so beautiful.
— Rachel Siglow
“The beauty is expressed in the way that they dance, and the way that they sang their different beautiful songs, as well as the wonderful costumes. The costumes were so beautiful,” she said. “The way that they used the
costumes to express what they were feeling, what they were thinking, and how it enhanced, like when they use the chopsticks, how it enhanced the music.”
Ms. Siglow is the deputy director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to foster “increased awareness of the life, career, values, and legacy of America’s 38th President” through events and activities that “promote the high ideals of integrity, honesty, and candor” that defined Ford’s public service.
Ms. Siglow felt similar universal values and virtues coming through in the performance.
“Oh my gosh, it was just uplifting, joyous. And I would say heartfelt,” she said. “You just feel the goodness of other people.”
Shen Yun’s mission is to, through music and dance, present the beauty and goodness of China before communism.
Dynasty after dynasty, for 5,000 years, Chinese
civilization centered around the concept of harmony between heaven, earth, and humankind. The ancient Chinese believed their culture a gift from heaven and believed good would be rewarded and evil punished, if not in this life, then the next.
Ms. Siglow praised the beauty of the traditional culture and
stories and noted that Shen Yun also included in its depictions the traditional values in the present day. She described her joy and even sadness brought about at different moments of the music and dance stories and said it was all done through beauty.
When she saw the imagery of heavenly beings, “I would call them angels,” she felt “uplifted, very uplifted.”
She thought, “all things are possible if you believe.”
“We all need hope. And so I think if you listen to the words and you really hear them and bring them into your mind that anything is possible,” she said.