NEW YORK—Digital designer and video producer Thes Hansen took his eleven year-old daughter to see Shen Yun Performing Arts at Lincoln Center April 28 and was amazed and inspired.
“There’s a lot of ideas that pop out of my [head] just seeing it,“ he said. His work editing and bringing creative things to life on screen will benefit from seeing Shen Yun. ”The live performance was really inspirational,“ he said. ”It’s very good.”
Mr Hensen is a principal at TELEGRAPHICMEDIA and also does independent consulting.
New York-based Shen Yun came together in 2006 with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture with dance, music and a digitally animated backdrop.
Classical Chinese dance, one of the most expressive dance forms in the world, is at the heart of a Shen Yun performance, along with ethnic and folk dance (such as Mongolian and Tibetan dance), and story-based dance. The dancers are adorned with handmade silk costumes and accompanied by digital backdrops and an orchestra that melds both classical Western and Chinese instruments.
As a digital designer and video editor, it was the digital backdrops that caught Mr. Hansen’s attention.
“It’s the telling of a story in a different way,“ he said. ”The digital visuals interacting with the screen, so nice. Really good. I’m a tech guy so I really appreciate all that.”
Shen Yun’s website says that the backdrops are “magical windows to completely different realms.”
“From vast open grasslands in one dance to the stately elegance of Tang Dynasty pavilions in another; from dusty yellow battlegrounds to tropical beaches to Himalayan peaks to picturesque scenery of the Yellow River Delta—the digital projection infinitely expands and transforms the stage,” it adds.
“I’m just impressed with the professional level of these performers, bringing their craft, their energy, and their focus,” he said. “And they’re so in sync.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Valentin Schmid
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.
