PARIS—Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company’s premiere performance in Paris was held on Friday evening, March 11, at the Palais des Congres, a mythic place in the French capital.
The New York-based performing arts company presented to the Parisian public a journey through time. A journey that took root in the 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, as well as in the rich ancestral outcome of the ethnic diversity that has allowed the edification of this rich and diverse traditional culture.
Shen Yun’s all-new program this season did not leave Stéphane Cabaret indifferent, a journalist with L'Equipe, a well-known newspaper in the world of sport. Mr. Cabaret was particularly interested in the aerial aspect of Shen Yun. “For me it expressed much lightness and grace,” he said at the end of the show.
But it was the erhu, the two-stringed Chinese traditional instrument that he said touched him the most. At times he could not find the words to even explain the feelings he felt through this instrument. “I was very sensitized to the musical instrument, the erhu. I really liked it a lot. I love the strings, it reminds me a bit of the violin, even if it’s a little different in tone.”
Similarly, the special relationship between the musician and her instrument, just sent him into a world of feelings. “There is incredible emotion in the relationship between a musician and his/her instrument. It gives off a lot of emotions!”
Accompanying him to the theater was Anne Ruiz, a special education teacher. Ms. Ruiz said she was touched by the lightness of the dance and the dancers majesty. “There is something about the fluidity expressed by the female dancers and the majesty always present in male dancers, that we find in expressive dance.
“We see martial arts, so there’s discipline, we have stringency and there is also something I don’t know, a very strong emotion. There is also a message that we feel, a spiritual and religious message ... in the sense of spiritual freedom, which is grounded in a great sense of modesty.”
The moments when this appears in the show are illustrated in various scenes which also touched Mr. Cabaret, like the one in Our Story in which the teacher was persecuted in China and even the story of the The Heroic Lu Zhishen, that “bad-good monk who has virtue and vice, when defending the weak and when battling alcohol.
“So, I found the show to be something quite palpable that we can feel. We can feel a strong side and a very profound side, all at the same time,” he said.
Reporting by Zhang Yue and Edwige Ansha.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The New York-based performing arts company presented to the Parisian public a journey through time. A journey that took root in the 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, as well as in the rich ancestral outcome of the ethnic diversity that has allowed the edification of this rich and diverse traditional culture.
Shen Yun’s all-new program this season did not leave Stéphane Cabaret indifferent, a journalist with L'Equipe, a well-known newspaper in the world of sport. Mr. Cabaret was particularly interested in the aerial aspect of Shen Yun. “For me it expressed much lightness and grace,” he said at the end of the show.
But it was the erhu, the two-stringed Chinese traditional instrument that he said touched him the most. At times he could not find the words to even explain the feelings he felt through this instrument. “I was very sensitized to the musical instrument, the erhu. I really liked it a lot. I love the strings, it reminds me a bit of the violin, even if it’s a little different in tone.”
Similarly, the special relationship between the musician and her instrument, just sent him into a world of feelings. “There is incredible emotion in the relationship between a musician and his/her instrument. It gives off a lot of emotions!”
Accompanying him to the theater was Anne Ruiz, a special education teacher. Ms. Ruiz said she was touched by the lightness of the dance and the dancers majesty. “There is something about the fluidity expressed by the female dancers and the majesty always present in male dancers, that we find in expressive dance.
“We see martial arts, so there’s discipline, we have stringency and there is also something I don’t know, a very strong emotion. There is also a message that we feel, a spiritual and religious message ... in the sense of spiritual freedom, which is grounded in a great sense of modesty.”
The moments when this appears in the show are illustrated in various scenes which also touched Mr. Cabaret, like the one in Our Story in which the teacher was persecuted in China and even the story of the The Heroic Lu Zhishen, that “bad-good monk who has virtue and vice, when defending the weak and when battling alcohol.
“So, I found the show to be something quite palpable that we can feel. We can feel a strong side and a very profound side, all at the same time,” he said.
Reporting by Zhang Yue and Edwige Ansha.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
