DES MOINES, Iowa—Retired high school teacher Paul Wilkerson and his wife Bonnie, a priest, attended Shen Yun’s first performance at the Des Moines Civic Center on April 21.
Outside the theater at the end of the matinee, Mr. Wilkerson said they “very much enjoyed the performance.”
“We enjoyed the messages that were there. It gave us some understanding of what happened in China then and now,” he remarked.
“I enjoyed the spiritual message the most. Due to the atheism that took over, you don’t think of China as being [spiritual.] Shen Yun changed my opinion of China. I enjoyed it very much.”
Referring to Shen Yun’s finale piece depicting humanity’s renewed belief in the divine, Mr. Wilkerson said it showed him that “people can still change even under the current form of government.”
“Everything was so synchronized,” he exclaimed.
“You can see there was passion. They were just dancing to dance. There was passion—it came across. They loved what they were doing, and we all benefitted from it.”
Shen Yun artists are highly trained in classical Chinese dance. Dating back thousands of years, it is one of the most athletic and expressive art forms in the world.
“A lot of people don’t feel that art should be in school anymore because it costs too much money. [Shen Yun] would be something special. It would be nice if they would put a performance on for the junior high students.”
