MELBOURNE, Fla.—We typically go to the theater to be entertained, but for local couple Larry and Chris Goldstein, who visited the King Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday night, profound insights were left in their memories after the curtains closed and the lights came on.
The couple were at the theater to enjoy Shen Yun Performing Arts. They were entertained by the beautiful colors and the “very, very talented” dancers, as Mr. Goldstein described them.
“It was breathtaking, to be honest with you,” he said of the dancers. “They way they leapt in the air—it seems like they were on strings. The way they landed—it just seems they were on air.”
On the surface, Mr. Goldstein “was really blown away,” as he put it, by the digital backdrops that displayed vivid scenery of different Chinese landscapes to create a setting for each dance. Many of the dances incorporate the screen so that characters seem as if they are seamlessly moving in or out of it.
“Everything about it was first-class,” Mr. Goldstein said of the production.
But the couple also each took away a profound message for the future.
When tenor Tian Ge performed, and the lyrics for the bel canto song “Life is Fleeting,” were on the digital screen, it set a completely different mood. The song struck a chord with Mr. Goldstein.
“Don’t let status, wealth or emotions lure you away from your path back to Heaven,” the lyrics say. This made Mr. Goldstein reflect on life’s priorities.
“It’s about how you treat people and how you live your life. Live a pious life,” he said.
Ms. Goldstein, an interior decorator, was also very moved by the performance and took note of the spiritual aspect, especially in the last dance, where young people in contemporary China were practicing their faith in public and displaying the peaceful meditation practice called Falun Gong.
“They had Buddha … that came out at the end, though it was like a light, and that is the goodness. That is where people are headed for,” she said.
Reporting by NTD Television and Kristina Pentchoukova
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.
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.