SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Transports French Audience Through China’s 5,000 Years of Culture

Feb 08, 2022

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France—Audience members often say that Shen Yun Performing Arts takes them on a journey through five millennia of history and it was no different for Betty Villard, a professional dancer, and her mother Nicky, who expressed how time flew during the whole experience.

“I have the impression I have traveled—I was completely elsewhere, I was under a spell and it was over,” Betty said after the performance.

“I wanted more and next year we will come back because it was really a show of beauty, fantastic dancers, fabulous musicians, and singers—everything was fabulous,” she said.

Her mother felt as though she had “crossed China in one evening.”

“It was really magical and it is the first time that we have come to the show. From the opening of the curtain, it was WOW!—it was really very rich in emotion. Bravo to all the team,” Nicky said.

As a dancer, Betty appreciated that Shen Yun was different from anything she had seen before. Shen Yun’s dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance which is an art form with a history of thousands of years. Chinese dance allows for a wider breadth of emotional expression through movement.

They have attended many other kinds of shows. “We’ve been to other performances—we were always a little touched, but this evening, we were really very moved. It was very rich in emotion,” Betty said.

They received tickets to the Shen Yun performance as a Christmas gift. Nicky expressed that she felt everyone should come and see Shen Yun.

“It is really necessary that people come to see it. We had heard about it and we received this as a gift for Christmas—really it was the most beautiful Christmas gift,” Nicky said.

China’s rich history has been under attack by the communist regime, which has systematically destroyed, distorted, and supplanted the traditional culture with its own—a reality that many in the West are not aware of.

“I really liked the traditional side mixed in with the modern side represented in the show and I liked very much the mystical aspect because it is part of Chinese mythology—everything that has to do with the gods, and goddesses,” Betty said.

Nicky also noted that Shen Yun was showcasing China’s spiritual and historical stories before communism.

“I also discovered some [Chinese] traditions,” Nicky said. “We also saw that spirituality was very important and [they] knew how to share it through dance—everything is now forbidden there, and we do not realize here, because we have a lot of freedom.”

Appreciating tradition Betty said, “I think we must not forget everything that makes our past and our identity. And I think it’s good in fact to keep the traditions alive.”

Reporting by Wu Ying and Maria Han.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.