BOURNEMOUTH, UK—Marina Tilley enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts so much that after the performance ended she said she would see it one more time if possible.
“That was fantastic,” said Mrs. Tilley, a doctor, who saw the performance with her husband Steve at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre on Feb. 12.
Mr. Tilley agreed, adding “I thought it was absolutely amazing. Fantastic.”
“The
music, oh perfect. But the waterfall, superb!” Mr. Tilley said as he described various parts of the performance that made the experience so unique.
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 through music and
dance, showing audiences China before communism.
Mrs. Tilley felt for this mission, as someone who came from an ex-Soviet country. She said she understood the feeling of having one’s culture destroyed by the state, as has happened to China’s five-millennia history after the
communist regime seized power.
This fact is often new for some audience members, and moving for many,
Toby Walker, who serves on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, felt it was a courageous mission.
“I think it’s very impressive,” he said, “It’s also very brave. I mean, the performances they’re doing, some of it means they can never go back to China.”
Indeed, Shen Yun was
founded by artists from around the world, many of whom had experienced religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime before leaving to find freedom of expression elsewhere. Shen Yun has been blacklisted by the Chinese communist regime, and its artists practice the spiritual discipline of Falun Gong, which is still being persecuted by the regime. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a peaceful spiritual discipline that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.
“I think it’s incredibly honorable that they’ve taken this stance and that they’re willing to for, lack of a better term, save their culture when their own nation [China] is doing everything it can to destroy it,” Mr. Walker said. “I think they’ve done a phenomenal job so far.”
“I love that they have their culture is so embedded in their
mythology and everything,“ he said. ”It’s very wonderful to see ... They’re all wonderful. They’re all doing a brilliant job.”
Reporting by Mary Man and Catherine Yang.
