SAN FRANCISCO—Principal Architect and Co-owner of Shah Kawasaki Architects, Harish Shah, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company’s first of two shows scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 7 at the War Memorial Opera House, part of a 6-day, 7-show run in San Francisco. After the 2:00 p.m. showing Mr. Shah shared his impressions of the performance.
“If you really allow yourself, which I really tried a couple of times, to get absorbed, then you’re not going to be only an observer. I participated and transcended [the seats] becoming part of the act. Right away this started energy moving in my back. I felt that and it was quite real; it’s not created. I mean there’s something magical about it because I cannot explain why it is so,” he said.
Shen Yun performances feature a unique digital backdrop used as virtual set pieces throughout the show. Mr. Shah felt that he had a universal connection with this afternoon’s performance through that backdrop and he thought the backdrop added a participatory element to the show.
According to Mr. Shah, this large screen within the performances showed one nature: the sky, mountains, and landscape. “It gave me a sense of the scale of the human being with respect to its participation in nature, and how minuscule it is,” he said.
