LONDON—Fashion consultant Victor Coppersmith was impressed with many aspects of the performance when he saw Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at London’s Barbican Centre on March 6.
“I just found it very fluid, very graceful and very poetic—the fluidity of the whole piece and the majesty of the music, the intonation of the music and dance and the movements. I think it forms a poetry in a sense,” he said.
With six shows at the prestigious Barbican Centre, Europe’s largest multi-arts venue, Shen Yun seeks to revive 5,000 years of civilisation. For Mr. Coppersmith the experience was “a wonderful representation of dance and Chinese culture”.
Through story-based classical Chinese dance, the performers recount myths and legends from China, all of which embody traditional Chinese values such as filial piety, compassion, loyalty, and veneration of the divine.
Mr. Coppersmith loved the historical stories.
“It’s like stories I haven’t heard. I’m learning about the history. Some very interesting stories,” he said.
He particularly loved the story of Sand Monk is Blessed, depicting a monk’s adventures on a pilgrimage to obtain Buddhist scriptures. This involves a shape-shifting ogre and universal themes of good versus evil in a tale Mr. Coppersmith described as magical.
He was also impressed with the state-of-the-art digital projection on pieces like The Emperor’s Journey to the Moon.
“[It’s] a very interesting production actually, the way they animated in the film and then [the performers] come out onto the stage … that’s part of the magic I think.”
Overall he found the whole experience to be very relaxing and colourful to watch, and he thought the costumes were beautiful. “It’s almost very meditative in a sense,” he said. “I cannot explain it too much but seeing a performance like this, you need time to think about it to get the true feeling. It’s just been a very interesting experience.”
Reporting by NTD Television, Jingwen Bailey and Simon Miller.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will be performing in Barbican Theatre through March 9. For more information, visitShenYunPerformingArts.org
