SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Divine in Our Presence’

Jan 02, 2015

HOUSTON—Longtime dancer and dance teacher Deirdre Denise McClain was overwhelmed with joy and renewal after watching Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“It is a new life of celebration, bliss, and that’s another characteristic that I received from just being here, was the bliss, the joy of living, I don’t have to survive anymore, now it is time for me to live,” said Ms. McClain.

That's the gift they gave me.

— Deirdre Denise McClain, dance teacher

“That’s what I got from this,” said Ms. McClain, choking up. “To enjoy my life. That’s the gift they gave me.”

“I am to go forth in the fullness of my joy and to give that joy to others.”

Deirdre Denise McClain produces theatrical dance performances. She puts on performances and seminars to help women and children step out of past abuse and learn to cherish their life and future. She is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Ms. McClain saw Shen Yun performance on Jan. 1 at Houston’s Jones Hall For The Performing Arts.

I feel like I have been to heaven and back.

— Deirdre Denise McClain

“I feel like I have been to heaven and back,” said Ms. McClain. “The dancers were amazing, the music was fabulous. The choreography was just so fascinating, and just the harmony, the flow, the message that was given through the dance of love and compassion,” said Ms. McClain.

Shen Yun Performing Arts seeks to revive the divine culture that flourished in China for millennia. Through performance of ethnic and classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun strives to bring the virtues and values of ancient China to the stage.

“Oh my God, it is so fabulous,” Ms. McClain said of Chinese dance. “I would like to take a class. I have to try to find a class, because it was just really spectacular. It is fascinating, I love the grace and the movement, I love the spiritual meaning of the movement.”

According to Shen Yun’s website, Chinese dance is “known for its incredible flips and spins, and its gentle elegance. It is one of the most rigorous and expressive art forms in the world.”

Ms. McClain explained that for her dance “was about our being centered in the divine, and the love and compassion of the divine through me, through you, and then, allowing that power to come forth to make a difference, to impact another’s life as well as the world, in a spiritual, holistic way, in a practical way, such as when the dancers helped the man that was confused.”

Ms. McClain was speaking of one of the narrative dances, The Power of Compassion.

It is set in contemporary China, and describes an unexpected encounter between a policeman who is about to do something wrong and a kind man.

“By sharing their world of compassion in dance, eventually that person came around to embrace compassion. To see all that in the dance, how it flowed, was amazing,” said Ms. McClain.

Divine Among Us

Ms. McClain had high praise for the skills of Shen Yun performers. Shen Yun dancers “are advanced professional dancers,” said Ms. McClain. “They are experts in their craft, they are masters of their craft. So to be a master of, to be a master of your gift and talent and your ability and be able to connect that to the audience ... you have mastered who you are in the divinity and the gifts that God has given to you.”

Ms. McClain said she believes when dancing, one can become one with the divine. “That transcends all the earthly problems that we have experienced, because we are one with the divine. If we are one with the divine as we are dancing, then we have joy, we have peace, we have compassion, we have harmony.”

It was really the divine here, in our presence through them. That's what it was. The divine in our presence through the dancers and through the musicians.

— Deirdre Denise McClain

According to her, as she watched Shen Yun, “I was connecting, just how the spirit was moving in the dancers, just the flow of it. I am like ‘wow, so this is so amazing.’ ... I'd really like to say it was really the divine here, in our presence through them. That’s what it was. The divine in our presence through the dancers and through the musicians, and through everyone that was here, part of Shen Yun, it was the divine, the spirit itself, or herself, or himself. Here, amongst us, speaking to each of us.”

“This is very prophetic, what they are doing. They are speaking in movement about the divine, and they are being very prophetic, and not afraid, such as saying, ‘atheism is a lie.’ That takes a lot of courage.”

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Nicholas Zifcak

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.