BERLIN—When the curtain rises on Shen Yun, stories of heroism, love and loss come to life. A total of eight groups of artists from the New York-based classical Chinese dance company, each accompanied by its own orchestra, are currently on a world tour. According to audiences from around the world, Shen Yun’s all-new program each year amazes audiences with how lively, inspiring, and profound traditional Chinese culture can be.
Cornelia Knoch and her family attended the evening performance of Shen Yun on Jan. 31 at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. She is the choir director of the State and Cathedral Choir at the University of the Arts in Berlin. This boys’ choir has a long tradition and is considered the oldest musical institution in Berlin. The first evidence dates back to 1465, when the Elector Frederick II of Brandenburg hired five “singing boys.”
Ms. Knoch is not only a choir director, but also plays the flute and a little piano, she said. In this respect, too, Shen Yun was a special experience for her.
After Shen Yun’s performance, the choir director had words of praise for the bel canto soloists, who had impressed her with their singing.
“Both filled the room very well,” she said. She highlighted the tenor’s “very present sound,” and the energy in his voice, and praised the piano accompanist.
“I really liked the orchestra,” she said. She was particularly taken with the erhu, an ancient Chinese, bowed instrument with two strings, also known as a sometimes dubbed the “Chinese violin.” The erhu has a history of over 4,000 years and was an essential part of folk performances, operas, and imperial banquets across dynasties. Virtuosos coax unique sounds and moving melodies from it, which can reflect all emotions, from grace to tenderness.
The choir director was also impressed by the athleticism of the dancers.
“They had to hold out for a long time, because it’s a very long program. And if you have to show the difficult jumps over and over again, it’s very exhausting,” she said in the presence of her father, who teaches sports and physics at a high school.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. The Knochs saw in it traditional values such as love, family, and solidarity that resonated.
Artistic Perfection
For Uwe Braaksma, owner of Braaksma Marketing & Vertrieb GmbH, which also sells solar systems, and his wife Monika, it was the first time they had visited Shen Yun. They, too, were impressed by the artists’ perfection.“This grace, this elegance,” said Mr. Braaksma, marveling at the dancers’ talent and expressing respect for their skill,
He was surprised by the animated backdrop, which is one of Shen Yun’s own design.
“The interaction with the film, the music, the stage—it’s really perfect,” he said.
“Really perfected, there’s no other way to put it,” added his wife.
The couple were also taken with the storytelling, describing a classic Chinese folktale about star-crossed lovers which had touched them deeply.
“Without a word being spoken, you understand the story,” Mr. Braaksma said.
The couple were impressed with Shen Yun’s mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.
‘Hardly Anything More Beautiful’
Shen Yun also left a lasting impression on Sven Schubert and Daria Busch. They both work in field sales; he as a district manager for a company, she in company bike leasing. The couple traveled from the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, around 300 kilometers away, to attend the evening performance of Shen Yun on Jan. 31 in Berlin.“It was really, really nice. It was really enchanting. It was a really, really great show,” said Ms. Busch.
“I thought it was incredible what the artists achieved. Really, the harmony and the lightness. It was incomparable. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful, really magical,” she said.
“The costumes, the lightness. You couldn’t even hear the ladies. Really, they were like feathers—magical. And everything, all the magic, even the illusion of how they came out of nowhere and disappeared again, I’m speechless.”
Mr. Schubert agreed.
“With dance and music you can represent something that cannot be put into words. That was what we experienced today. It was great,” he said.
“What was shown today, as I said, cannot be put into words,” Mr. Schubert added. “This perfection, this lightness, this joy, what was shown there.”
He wanted to pay the dancers, the orchestra and the choreographers “a huge compliment.”
“You have to work hard to learn this art. But what came out of it in the end is magnificent! Absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“I would come back here tomorrow in a heartbeat. There is hardly anything more beautiful that I have ever seen,” he said.
