CHARLESTON, S.C.—Architect Marc Camens has an eye for detail, proportion, and design, and an appreciation for the “exquisite” architectural legacy of the East. He saw that too in Shen Yun Performing Arts, attending the performance at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center with his wife, Allie, on April 19.
“Enlightening. You see, I love the form, the flow, the colors, the shape, the dancing. And the whole presentation of the
backdrop screen is very interesting. The way people went in and out of it—that’s really great creativity and technology. So it’s very uplifting. Beautiful,” said Mr. Camens, who heads his own architectural firm.
“I mean, you can hear the music. The
music is so serene. Right now, it’s serene. It’s calming. And then it’s bursts. You know, like the dance. It bursts. Yeah, the dance bursts. It goes along and boom, somebody’s jumping in the air,” he said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Through music and dance, the performing arts group aims
to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and show audiences the beauty of China before communism.
The Camenses had high praise for the artists, particularly taken with the dancers and their athletic and artistic ability.
“Just the athletics. The performers themselves, how athletic they are, the energy, all the energy they have, the costumes are like out of this world,” Mrs. Camens said. “I mean, just costumes, it’s hard to believe. I don’t know how many times they’ve changed costumes tonight.”
“Yeah, it’s beautiful. I think that, you know, you can see the culture, just the way that people stress their movements. You can really see their movements and their shapes and things, the way they do their hands and everything. And it’s incredible the athleticism that is up there, the ability
to dance, and it shows,” Mr. Camens said.
Mr. Camens added that he particularly enjoyed the use of the digital backdrop, which displayed the land, the architecture, and the sort of detail he appreciated.
“That’s enlightening,” he said. “It’s perfect.”
Reporting by Sherry Dong and Catherine Yang.
