SAN FRANCISCO—The virtues of 5,000 years of Chinese culture were displayed on the stage at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House as Shen Yun Performing Arts presented its Saturday evening show.
Photographer Kay Simon attended the performance, calling it “very different from anything I have ever seen.” She added, “I liked it very much.”
“As a photographer, I enjoyed the backdrops immensely,” she said, calling them “beautiful.” She added that “seeing pictures that large brought me into the scene very much.”
Classical Chinese dance is the focal point of each Shen Yun performance, and each piece features a projected digital backdrop, according to the New York-based company’s website.
“The colors and the costumes were beautifully coordinated with the backdrops ... and it was very lovely to watch,” Ms. Simon said.
Shen Yun also features a tableaux of colorful costumes that draw upon the designs of clothes used throughout China’s millenia-old history, including from the Tang Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, imperial robes, and the various ethnic groups around the country, according to the website.
“I like the feeling of imagining these people dancing in that setting. That’s the way it felt to me, it was very lovely. I enjoyed seeing all of the different pictures of all the different areas of China,” Ms. Simon added.
“The music was very nice, too. It added to the ambiance to have the colorful ethnic music,” she said, referring to Shen Yun’s Orchestra, which according to the dance company, joins together the Western classical style with Chinese instruments.
“It was enjoyable to see something that was very different from what I usually see. I loved where they did the more virtuosic dancing,” she said.
At the heart of Shen Yun is classical Chinese dance, which is considered one of the most comprehensive and difficult dances to master, the company’s website says. The art form allows the performers to express their innermost thoughts and moral character by using dance, along with a variety of props.
“That was beautiful to watch. The whole thing was really very lovely and very enjoyable. I loved the colors in the costumes, in the outfits, they were gorgeous,” Ms. Simon added.
Reporting by Jianguo Wu and Jack Phillips.
Shen Yun’s New York Company will continue on to Costa Mesa and then Los Angeles, starting January 11. Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3WTKCEA4tE[/video]
