TOURS, France—Two hours seemed to have passed in an instant for Thierry Lomuller, who so enjoyed seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts on Feb. 11 that he didn’t notice the time.
“I’m spellbound,” said Mr. Lomuller, former airport security director, after seeing Shen Yun at the Palais des Congrès in Tours. “I think it’s very well organized, very well conceptualized, and amazing from start to finish.”
Describing Shen Yun’s artistic level as “exceptional,” Mr. Lomuller said, “You can feel the hard work that goes into it, the minute-by-minute, day-by-day work, to achieve a physical performance of the highest quality.
“But at the same time, it’s a feast for the eyes, a feast for the ears, and a feast for the heart!” Mr. Lomuller added.
He said he felt “in communion with the artists.”
“I often watched the orchestra, which was itself in communion with the artists,” he said.
“It was extraordinary! Frankly, you’re immersed in an atmosphere ... And as I said earlier, you don’t see time flying by. That’s what really amazed and astonished me!”
“It’s a kind of happy combination that will surprise neophytes, that’s for sure. When you prepare for a show by telling yourself that you’re going to see something that’s anything but banal, you inevitably associate a spiritual reflection with the show you’re going to see, and that you find perfectly throughout the show, and that’s really very, very important,” Mr. Lomuller said.
“The spiritual dimension dominates the show from start to finish, and ties in with the history of ancient China, which we tend to underestimate,” he added.
Shen Yun’s mission is, for Mr. Lomuller, “necessary.”
Mr. Lomuller hopes that Shen Yun will open the way to a better understanding of traditional China. He hopes “that there will be relays among today’s great historians, specialists in China and sinologists, that they themselves can seize the opportunity offered by Shen Yun to make Chinese spirituality and ancient history accessible, and expand on the history of ancient China through conferences, books, films, and documentaries.”
Christian and Dominique Thomas discovered something exceptional in Shen Yun as well.
“Truly marvelous, enchanting! An outstanding grace,” Mrs. Thomas said. “Really, we’re under their spell.
Christian Thomas, a former printing consultant, felt “a lot of emotion.”
Attending Shen Yun, Mrs. Thomas hopes that “in France, we'll also make a return to our traditions, our folk dances, everything that was our past and that we’re abandoning a little bit every day.”
“When you’re listening to all these things from the past that are millennia old, you have to try to internalize all that, then try to make them known a little bit around you.”
