DETROIT—Family friends for 30 years, Bill proposed to Terrie on the Great Wall of China in 2011. Now Chinese culture will always play a special role in their relationship. Deepening their appreciation for the culture, the couple attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Detroit Opera House, for its Sunday performance.
New York-based Shen Yun aims to restore and revitalize 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. It brings ancient stories of wisdom to life through classical Chinese dance and music.
“It’s wonderful, and what I like is that all my senses, so many of my senses, are assaulted, which is not a really good word because it’s so beautiful. I love watching the colors, the fluidity of the movement, and the music is superb. I am really, really enjoying it, the music in addition to the dance,” said Terrie Boicourt, a retired project manager for Chrysler.
“The dancing is extraordinary,” Bill Halbert said.
Mr. Halbert is a longtime stock broker for Morgan Stanley, whose son dances professionally. “It is amazing,” he said of Shen Yun’s dancing.
“I like the women because they’re very colorful, the men because they’re very masculine,” he said.
“And they’re extraordinarily athletic. Their athletic ability is amazing,” he continued.
Shen Yun specializes in classical Chinese dance, a comprehensive system with rigorous training in three aspects; form, or the dancers’ postures; bearing, the inner essence of expression; and technique, the difficult but theatrical tumbling, flips and leaps.
Ms. Boicourt was surprised, but pleased by some of the modern stories depicted through dance, which show the courage of people standing up for their beliefs despite persecution from the Chinese communist regime.
“I guess I’m glad for the reminder because that’s kind of hidden from us, and so it’s good to remember that there are people who don’t have as many freedoms as we do, that there are still people who have courage to struggle, to stand up for what they believe in. Sometimes I think we have it easy in the United States we don’t always appreciate what we have,” she said.
The performance features a collection of story-based classical Chinese and ethnic or folk dance that capture the essence of traditional Chinese culture.
“That’s very nice as well, … we’re learning about all the different cultures in China, and that’s something I also don’t think of usually in the United States, is how many different cultures there are within China. So many ethnic groups—so it’s a reminder that it’s a big country,” she said.
The couple will marry in June.
Reporting by Charlie Lu and Sharon Kilarski.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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