CHICAGO—Architect Patrick McCarty attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Auditorium Theatre on April 8.

“I loved the Manchurian dance,” he said. “It was just stunning with the shoes that they had, with no heels on. I thought that was so difficult to do.”

“The male dancers are great,” he added. “They’re just so powerful and very, very stunning.”

“I think the best way to say it is that everybody is inclusive, and they work together to live in harmony as opposed to being just controlled.

“I think it’s very important to the world today to be able to see the distinction and the difference,” he said of China.

“I don’t think many Americans really know what takes place in China, or know what’s going on. And I think this really gives you a perspective of the before and the after.

He said it was tragic how modern China doesn’t have religion freedom.

“[There is one scene] that was just horrific in terms of how that was portrayed, that they didn’t have the religious freedom to express themselves,” McCarty said.

“I think you can see just the way the actors carried themselves. And the way that they interacted with one another was much more friendly and less violent. And then you could see the distinction between the communist party where it came out, very much so. Just the stress and the control that was being taken over there.”

“I did not know much about that before,” he said. “And I found that very unique in terms of the storyline that came through with the divine and the connection with the spiritual world.

“I’m going to have to look into that further.”

McCarty had positive words for the performers. “I think they’re fantastic and I really applaud them.”