LOS ANGELES—Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company held its second and final performance in Thousand Oaks on Jan. 23 before preparing for the next performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. It was the seventh performance in the Greater Los Angeles area.
At the Fred Kavli Theatre in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, the audience was amazed by Shen Yun’s pure classical Chinese dance.
Former president of the Chinese American Dance Association, Wu Yuling praised the performance during the intermission.
“Excellent overall performance,” she said. “I was very touched.”
Ms. Wu has seen Shen Yun many times, yet still finds it refreshing and new every year.
“I like the show very much because they have preserved many traditional elements of China, and meanwhile, did an outstanding job in costuming and uniformity of movements,” she said.
With 30 years of experience in teaching Chinese dance, Ms. Wu places particular importance on purity. In her opinion, the bearing of classical Chinese dance takes many years of accumulation and precision to cultivate.
“Only when one understands the traditional Chinese culture and undergoes long-term training and practice can one be able to hold that particular bearing,” she said. “It cannot be done in a few days.”
Ms. Wu believes that the essence of Chinese dance has a “very smooth and profound bearing, nothing like rigidity or outspokenness.” In her opinion, Shen Yun embodies this very essence.
“It’s very graceful,” she said. “I like it very much.”
Shen Yun Touches the Soul of a Chinese Artist
Mr. Li is an artistic professional from China. He saw Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company on Jan. 18 in Orange County, near Los Angeles, just a few days before leaving for China.
“My soul has been deeply touched by Shen Yun,” he said. “I did not expect an overseas performing arts company to perform Chinese dance so perfectly. … This is the performance that has shown the finest and most abundant elements in classical dance of all the performances I have seen.”
Mr. Li thinks that Shen Yun’s costume changes between programs were amazingly quick, which he said is impossible for the average dance company.
“As a professional, I know the level of difficulty presented in the dance pieces,” he said. “Watching them, I really want to approach them and know what’s on their mind.”
From his professional point of view, Mr. Li believes that the simplest things in dancing happen to be the most difficult to do.
“Shen Yun’s dancers change formations and positions in an instant so precisely, with equal or appropriate distance from each other,” he said. “This coordination is very hard to achieve, and Shen Yun dancers have done it so perfectly.”
Mr. Li particularly enjoyed a dance called Predestined Relationship, as well as all the lyrics of the songs. He was deeply touched by the inner meaning of the stories and lyrics.
“I wonder how such a masterful production is done, and how much effort needs to be put in!” Mr. Li said. “For the entire night tonight, I have not seen a tiny error. All programs are very outstanding, especially the storytelling ones are engraved in my memory.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will perform in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through Jan. 27. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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