SEATTLE—Shen Yun Performing Arts received a warm welcome from cultural aficionados who filled the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall on March 30, 2013. Among those who enjoyed the performance was retired architect Ram Prasad.
“I think it’s great, and the whole setup is so dramatic and so nice,” said Mr. Prasad.
Shen Yun is on its global tour with a mission to restore China’s 5,000 years of culture destroyed during the Great Cultural Revolution.
This was Mr. Prasad’s first time seeing Shen Yun, and “It was quite enjoyable,” he said.
Through classical Chinese dance and music, Shen Yun journeys through ancient dynasties, various remote villages, and mystical realms.
“With state-of-the-art graphics technology, Shen Yun’s digital-backdrop team creates vividly animated settings, extending the stage and transporting the audience to a world where heaven and earth are one,” reads Shen Yun’s website.
“They’ve done a very good job of the background, and the dancers are just wonderful,” he said. “It’s a beautiful experience.”
With Shen Yun’s combination “of life versus photographic elements in the backdrop,” Mr. Prasad found “the two combining together in a very elegant manner [that] makes it very dramatic.”
“We’ve not seen anything like this before,” he added.
“There’s of course a lot more of China that they cannot possibly show, but what they’ve done is they’ve picked portions of China and given a very simple depiction of those areas,” he explained. “But the Chinese history and so on is so incredible.”
With China’s 5,000 years of recorded history, Mr. Prasad said he felt that it would be difficult to get the full picture in two hours.
Another aspect Mr. Prasad said he appreciated was the music. Shen Yun’s orchestra combines Eastern and Western instruments creating a unique sound unlike that of any other orchestra in the world.
“I think it’s very good,” he said. “They’ve done a fantastic job of combining the two. The music itself is wonderful.”
Reporting by Michael Green and Maria Banks
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is performing in Seattle, at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, March 28-31. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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