SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic—Mr. Carlos Veitía, director of the Eduardo Brito National Theater and former director of the Dominican National Ballet, is also the founder of Ballet Concierto Dominicano, a top ballet company in the Dominican Republic. He is well acquainted with what it takes to put on a great dance performance. On Feb. 2, he welcomed Shen Yun Performing Arts to the Eduardo Brito National Theater in Santo Domingo for their opening night performance and was left inspired.
“For me, this is a brilliant moment within my management in the theater because it is a dance company that believes in virtues, in discipline, in raising the human spirit, that all countries, all cultures, have to watch,“ he said. ”The National Theater will always be open to anyone who comes with art, to tell the truth about it.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, and although it is welcomed all around the world, it is banned in China. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive the 5,000 years of divinely inspired civilization of China, which the ruling Chinese Communist Party has worked to destroy over the past 70 years.
“Well, the public is here to decide what they believe and what they don’t,” Mr. Veitía said.
“It’s a culture so enormous and so ancient, that’s good, today it showed off."
Mr. Veitía is a renowned dance choreographer himself and a former classical ballet dancer. In 1995 he was awarded as the Classical Choreographer of the American Continent, receiving the Kennedy Center’s Fellowship of the Americas Award.
He greatly appreciated Shen Yun’s dancers and their training.
“It is a precious company, very well trained, of very well trained dancers,“ he said. ”Precious. Here we have great dancers, very good ones.”
“What appeals to me about Shen Yun is exactly that; the work, the sweat they put on, that’s called discipline, and that is vocation and love; how in sync they were, how musical they are, the beautiful choreographies made by the choreographers, I congratulate them with all my heart, profoundly,” he said.
What set Shen Yun apart, Mr. Veitía said, was the artists’ faith and conviction.
“It is a show full of beauty, as well as emotional,“ he said. ”I saw a lot of faith in what they did. I saw that they were convinced in their message, that is very important for each artist, and that is the case.”
“I saw sincerity in their interpretation and I saw their heart set on their culture.”
“I cannot fail to mention the wonderful orchestra, exquisite orchestra, marvelous. But I loved the show because as a whole, it is very professional, and that is a great virtue in art,“ he said. ”You can have very good dancers, as I repeat, there are very good ones here, the issue is teamwork, and I understand that Shen Yun is a world example for that.”
The result is a performance he heartily recommended to everyone.
“It is a show that everyone must see, everyone must come to see it and the whole world should follow,” he said. “People need to follow discipline, virtues, and beauty.”
“The world needs a lot of that,” he said.
“The world right now needs a lot to remember that you have to be honest with yourself, that we have to work because we are imperfect in every way, that we have to try to seek perfection, physical, and first spiritual to be able to get it physical," Mr. Veitía said.
“And that you can’t waste time because life is short, he said.
“So I understand that you have to work on virtues, you have to try to be better human beings, and understand and respect each other. We all have the right to express ourselves. And we also have the right to live in peace, in peace, with one another.”For Mr. Veitía, Shen Yun was “precious, precious, wonderful.”
“It’s sublime,” he said.
Reporting by NTD.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.