LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Shen Yun Performing Arts began its Swiss tour in Basel on Valentine’s Day, and the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company was in Lausanne from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22, 2025. Geneva City Councilor Daniel Dany Pastore attended the performance on Feb. 21 at the Théâtre de Beaulieu.
“I’ve seen a lot of shows in my life, but this is the first time I’ve seen a show like this and really I’m blown away,” Mr. Pastore said.
“I found the show extraordinary. It’s unimaginable: the technique, the coordination, it’s all so finely tuned, down to the last thousandth of a millimeter. Everything is extraordinary,” Mr. Pastore said. “The dancers are magnificent and I’m impressed.”
“The music is terrific,” assures the politician, who was particularly “blown away” by the soprano’s performance. “Extraordinary! If I could meet her now, I'd give her a bow, a standing ovation. But an incredible voice! Incredible! Incredible!”
Though Shen Yun tours the world every year, it cannot go to China. With its eight equally-sized groups, the New York-based company’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture, which has been destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Pastore understands this mission very well. “I think we really have to defend the culture of every country, and China of course,” he said, thanking the company for the work it does for “this magnificent Chinese culture” that he now knows “a little bit, thanks to this show.”
“People today lack pragmatism and culture, they all want to go to the Moon, to Mars,” he adds. “They’re making incredible technologies, but they’re forgetting the very foundation of the country, the real culture, the one that has made this country magnificent and rich, precisely in culture, in music, in dance, in colors, in flowers,” he said.
It was at the Théâtre de Beaulieu in Lausanne that Christian and Jocelyne Jacquin-Ravot saw Shen Yun for the third time, on Friday, Feb. 21.
“The first time was in Geneva, maybe 10 years ago,” Mr. Jacquin-Ravot said. “And that time, it was the first time I could feel the notion of faith without being affiliated to any religion.”
“And that’s what we find in this show too,” he said.
“I understand that the three words that sum up the thinking of the Falun Dafa movement are kindness, authenticity, and sincerity,” Mr. Jacquin-Ravot said. “I’ve just finished writing a novel, and I’m talking about this, but I didn’t know it existed in your country.”
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a peaceful spiritual discipline that teaches five meditative exercises and the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. In the program book, Mr. Jacquin-Ravot Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong and aim to live by these principles.
The couple were particularly touched to discover that the character in Mr. Jacquin-Ravot’s novel features all five elements, just like Shen Yun. “And finally, we find that here in your show,” he said.
For his wife, Jocelyne Jacquin-Ravot, a clinical psychologist, the performance was “quality, subtlety, the costumes are magnificent, and the dancers have an extraordinary style.”
“As a dance fan, when I was younger, I went to see great dancers like Ludmilla Tcherina, Liane Daydé ... Well, despite everything, [Shen Yun] is more grandiose,” she said.
