ATLANTA—Graphic artist Danielle Yarbrough knew how to treat her best friend for his birthday. She brought self-described “theater child” Levi Jelks to the Jan. 28 Shen Yun Performing Arts. During intermission at the Cobb Energy Centre, the two beamed and spoke in superlatives.
“It was fabulous,” said Ms. Yarbrough, who works at the High Museum of Art. In art school, she specialized in animation and graphic design. “This is my second time coming, and I wanted my best friend to come to celebrate this. How beautiful, the 5,000 years of culture retained, it’s just breathtaking.” Standing shoulder to shoulder with his friend, Mr. Jelks smiled and said, “It was awesome.”
The artist has a lifelong love of Asian culture, and studied a traditional Chinese martial art. Based in New York, Shen Yun draws its inspiration from China’s 5,000 years of civilization.
“I think they really do such a great job with the costumes and the colors,” said Ms. Yarbrough.
“I have to say the dragon was awesome,” she added
In the dance An Era Begins a battle between good and evil starts when a demon horde abruptly combines to form a sinister red dragon.
The dragon moves and changes shapes in a way that is “subtle, yet really powerful,” said Mr. Jelks.
Miss Yarbrough, who had an internship at Turner Studios, noted the high skill in the animated backdrop and how well the artists portrayed flowing fabric in the animated images.
“[The] sequences of the animated figures was just fantastic.” She said she loved How the Monkey King Came to Be, the classic story in which “his adventures eventually lead him to Heaven’s peach orchard,” reads the program.
Mr. Jelks currently has an internship at the well-regarded Horizon Theater in Atlanta.
“Speaking as a theater person … this is definitely a treasure trove of cultural knowledge that I never even knew before.” He said he admired the way the set design “combined modern set design with classic theatrical performance pieces. It’s just an amazing show, esthetically and music-wise.”
Seeing Shen Yun “just expands my theatrical knowledge of how a show can be so beautiful and be so heartfelt without saying a word … How they can express themselves mainly through dancing is amazing,” said Mr. Jelks.
Ms. Yarbrough said she'd like to say “thank you” to the artists. “Thank you for sharing their passion and their love. We are all in the arts and sometimes it’s hard to pursue the arts … you are doing what you love and you’re helping people and inspiring people.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will perform at Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre through Jan. 29.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
