CHICAGO—“I have never seen anything like it,” Ms. Jean Gould said about the matinee performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, on April 24. “It’s just amazing, the heart, and soul of those dancers—really terrific!”
Shen Yun is based out of New York and brings to life the ancient Chinese culture through beloved myths and legends, classical Chinese dance, orchestra music, and award-winning soloists.
“I really enjoyed the pianist [who accompanied the soloists] today. She is fabulous,” Ms. Gould, a piano teacher herself expressed. “Everything was just beautiful.”
“The music itself is very difficult. I could tell that she has not only learned the music perfectly, but she has to keep her eye on the soloist and make sure that the soloist is the star of the show, not her.”
“This is so hard to do when you’re pounding the keys,” Ms. Gould explained.
Shen Yun brings to the stage a revival of ancient China’s traditional values divinely bestowed 5,000 years ago, but lost during just a few decades of communist rule, the company’s website explains.
Ms. Gould was deeply moved by Shen Yun. “[Traditional culture] was the soul of the people and [that was] the meaning that the performers were projecting to us,” Ms. Gould said. “The dancers seem to be very dedicated to their art, but also in wanting to pass that meaning on.”
For Ms. Gould that meaning was “to live our lives the way it was meant to be, the way our Creator meant for us to live, beautiful and graceful and more thinking of the other person than ourselves.”
She concluded that “the Chinese people have the right to be themselves, and to show the world how we can be gracefully delicate and true to our country and our God, and live our lives the way they were meant to be lived.”
Reporting by Sherry Dong and Cat Rooney.
Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will continue with shows in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, April 28-30. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
