Shen Yun: ‘Our Heroes From Heaven’ Says Salt Lake City Patron
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Stephen and Jeanne Schaefer at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, in Salt Lake City on Feb. 22, 2023. Mary Mann/The Epoch Times
SALT LAKE CITY—“It was fantastic ... the whole world needs to be exposed to the truth,” said Jeanne Schaefer after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“[Shen Yun] is the future,” she said, “we are looking at the past and it will become the future again.”
Mrs. Schaefer, qigong instructor, attended the matinee production with her husband Stephen Schaefer, lawyer, at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater on Feb. 22.
“[Shen Yun] are our heroes from heaven,” said Mr. Schaefer, “we admire [them] … we love [them]!”
China was once known as “The Land of the Divine” and Shen Yun presents this culture by drawing upon the Middle Kingdom’s Buddhist and Daoist philosophies. Based in New York, the company performs classical Chinese dance, folk and ethnic dances, as well as story-based pieces that tell tales from ancient times to the modern day.
In the past, artists looked to the divine for inspiration and cultivated virtue in order to create uplifting art. Today, Shen Yun’s artists follow in this noble tradition by practicing the spiritual discipline Falun Dafa, which is why audiences feel there is something different about Shen Yun, says the company’s website.
Practicing qigong every day themselves, the Schaefer’s admired Falun Dafa’s principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance.
“We are very spiritual people, so we resonate with the show,” said Mrs. Schaefer.
“We need magic back in life,” she said, “but sometimes we have to go through darkness to go to the light.”
Reflecting on a dance piece that depicts the current persecution of Falun Dafa by the Chinese Communist Party, Mrs. Schaefer said, “even in the beautiful show there is a force of darkness that is only temporary … then we restore and we honor the spiritual.”
‘Uplifts Your Spirit’
Michael Smart, geographic information systems coordinator, and his wife Suzette, business office manager, also attended the matinee production of Shen Yun at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater on Feb. 22.
Michael and Suzette Smart at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, in Salt Lake City, on Feb. 22, 2023. Mary Mann/The Epoch Times
This was the first time the Smarts saw Shen Yun perform, and they commented that they had been waiting years for this moment.
Amazed by Shen Yun’s live orchestra and virtuoso vocalists who sing Chinese lyrics using the traditional bel canto style, Mr. Smart said the soprano’s voice “uplifts your spirit.”
“[Her] voice, the booming voice, the whole volume of it … really touches you,” he said.
“Her voice just really uplifts your spirits,” he said, “It uplifted me and I felt [the] energy … it was spiritual.”
Reporting by Mary Mann and Jennifer Schneider.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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