TEL AVIV, Israel—Hannah Samira, CEO of a tech company, was familiar with ancient Chinese culture and principles; in fact, she referenced some of its philosophies, including “The Art of War” in her own work. But she knew little about how China today is ruled, and found
Shen Yun Performing Arts an eye-opening experience.
“It’s the most beautiful performance I’ve ever seen. I was very impressed,” said Ms. Samira at the Shlomo Lahat Opera House on the evening of April 9.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier
classical Chinese dance company, and takes as its mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through the arts. In recent years, the performance has been billed as one showing a “China before communism.”
“It was interesting,” Ms. Samira said. “It was beautiful, the music and the dancing together—it was very special.”
“It evoked hope, national pride—I saw how proud they are of their country despite what their government does, and I feel that as a Jew in Israel, I’m a proud American Jew. I don’t always agree with what my governments do, but I’m proud to be Israeli and Jewish, and proud to be American. So I could identify with them.”
Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by leading Chinese artists who had
left China seeking freedom of religion and expression. For five millennia, Chinese culture was believed to be divinely inspired—a gift from the heavens—until communism took power in 1949 and several violent campaigns to destroy traditional culture were launched.
“The performance tonight was like a journey through Chinese history, from ancient times to modern times, and it was amazing to see it come to life on stage,” Ms. Samira said.
“I’m amazed right now because it was just so incredible; everything was so good. I was thinking about all the different
cultures in China—people think of China as very homogeneous, but in fact, it started from many different cultures that merged,“ she said. ”[We Israelis]
have people from all over the world, and we’re diverse, and we’re still proud to be Israelis.”“
I would highly recommend the show because it’s a combination of excellent music and beautiful choreography; you simply can’t get all these things in one show,“ she said. ”It’s music that simply brought me to tears. It was very emotional.”Reporting by Keren Zrihen.
