ROSEMONT, Ill.—Philip and Cheryl Bogolo said their first time seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts was fantastic and inspiring.
“We love it—absolutely inspiring,” said Mr. Bogolo, a composer. The couple saw Shen Yun at the Rosemont Theatre on April 26.
“It’s lovely, it’s beautiful to be able to have this art here to be able to learn from it and inspire me to what I’m doing with movies and tv shows and things like that.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, and takes as its
mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
Mr. Bogolo found it a
spiritual culture, and thought the performance included a “connection to the universal mind of God,” explaining that he thought the traditional values present in Shen Yun were shared across major religions.
He said one of the universal messages this communicated was “that we work better holding hands than we do with fists up.”
Mr. Bogolo said it was a shame that the Chinese culture has been suppressed in China by the communist regime, and “it’s a shame because we should learn from them.”
“It’s not preaching, it’s telling a story of spirituality,” he added. “Especially the last
singer that was there, she was very inspirational and the words are beautiful, because we all—it’s the same message that Jesus says, and God says, anything. I’m Jewish, so it’s all the similar things—it comes back from whether you think you believe you’re born in sin or not, that we have come from the Heavens and come to earth to have a purpose. And I believe every person on earth has a purpose, and that’s what I get.”
Mr. Bogolo added that after composing for film and TV over the years, he is working on his own film now, and gained a lot of inspiration from seeing
Shen Yun.
“Music is enlightenment, yes, and it can express through dance. ... One of the things I love about this is you’ve had beautiful music and dancing; it’s expressing without words how things are universal and I believe in love and God and
spirituality. I love the idea of people coming down from heaven and with the flowing robes coming down, and just expressing that, it’s almost like the angels in the wind,“ he said. ”I really love it, and I think that’s what’s really inspiring, so I would like to incorporate that more because I’m working on my own movie right now.”
Mrs. Bogolo, an actuary, agreed with her husband and said it was an uplifting experience.
“I love all the beautiful colors, and it just gives me a very nice feeling just watching it and watching the stories,” she said.
Mr. Bogolo said he also believed in the divine, and signs from them in the form of “different serendipities accidents and coincidences coming through you or someone else to be able to tell you what to do in life,” and felt a sense of that in
Shen Yun, almost as if it was a dream.
“I love the dream aspect of it,” he said. “We’re only here for a short period of time, but we’re coming from the heavens to come back to here ... so I love this.”
Reporting by Stacey Tang and Catherine Yang.
