WASHINGTON, D.C.—For Lilly Doggendorf,
Shen Yun Performing Arts was a symphony of sights and sounds—colors, folklore, virtuosity, classical Chinese dance, bel canto, orchestra, and high-difficulty tumbling techniques came together to form a work of art.
“What very much impressed me was this combination,” said Ms. Doggendorf as she listed the various aspects of the performance she found beautiful.
Ms. Doggendorf is the chair of a charity for Romania, in Germany, and she attended Shen Yun with her friend at The Kennedy Center Opera House on Jan. 29.
New York-based
Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company, and it combines these various artistic aspects to bring to audiences 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
It was a civilization that the ancient Chinese believed was divinely inspired, gifted by the heavens, and for this reason this traditional
culture has been systematically rooted out by the communist regime of China in its past 70 years of rule.
Ms. Doggendorf said it was good to see this spirituality alive and well “here in the free world,” because “it’s an aspect that I know is prohibited in still in today’s China.”
“The good message for me was that actually the meditation, this old Chinese meditation, was equal with religion. I didn’t realize that,” said Ms. Doggendorf.
The idea of spiritual cultivation, which often included meditation, is a millennia-old part of traditional Chinese culture.
“And then, of course, it was wonderful for me to see Tibet, and then to see the oppression of a communist regime, which is of course, shall I say, the critical part of it, and I enjoyed that.”
“And that’s possible in America,” Ms. Doggendorf said, referring to Shen Yun’s
mission. After all, the American company is currently banned from performing in China.
“That it is beautiful and free and traditional, and everything is possible. And everything is allowed,” she said.
“I think, as the Americans would say, they rock,” she said of
Shen Yun’s artists. “They are talented. They are absolutely amazing, very well-trained. And I admired them a lot. And I thank them for their performance.”
She said
Shen Yun was “the best” for being able to “put together a show that is unique and that is really fantastic for the world because it speaks to all of us to every country to every nation, not just to Americans or Germans, everybody, everybody.”
Reporting by Weiyong Zhu.
![Connecticut Mayor: ‘People in China Need [Shen Yun] to Remind Them of Who They Are’](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F11%2Fid5648198-1.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
