RALEIGH, N.C.—Scientists George and Kelly Amato enjoy the performing arts and have wanted to see
Shen Yun Performing Arts for years. Jan. 18 was finally the date, and the couple found the experience to be one of beauty and compassion.
“It was a beautiful combination of beautiful music and the dancing, very well choreographed,” said Mr. Amato, who works in drug discovery, after seeing the performance at the Memorial Auditorium at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
“It was very beautiful, very graceful. I enjoyed it thoroughly,” said Mrs. Amato, a chemist. “It’s very inspiring, and I love the positive message. I think that’s something we need more of.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Its
mission is to, through dance and music, revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, sharing with audiences China before communism.
Audience members often remark that Shen Yun conveyed to them a positive message. Traditional
Chinese culture is a divinely inspired culture, and as such, the stories are full of themes like faith, hope, divine intervention, and good being rewarded while evil is punished.
Mr. Amato said he thought universal values were conveyed through the art.
“Being kind and loving and respectful. They’re just beautiful messages. I really appreciate that,” he said. “As spirituality leads to being loving and kind and respectful, it’s beautiful.”
He said some of the pieces were story-based dances, which “really show the true essence of being loving and kind no matter how the person is treating you, even in the end.”
Some of those stories were humorous, others more serious, some from
classic literature, and others drawn from real life, Mr. Amato recalled. In these stories, even when being treated badly, sometimes very badly, the characters “still showed him mercy and love” and shared their spirituality; in some of those stories, that made all the difference.
“It was just really beautiful message, beautiful dancing, and everything was very well done,” Mr. Amato said.
Also in the audience was Lee Gentry, who said with a laugh that she had just texted her coworkers the Amatos after seeing Shen Yun, not knowing they were right in the audience with her.
Ms. Gentry, a research scientist, felt amazed and inspired by the performance.
“There are no words. That was incredible!” she said. “Just absolutely sensational. It was absolutely amazing.”
“Just visually stunning. Absolutely beautiful. It’s the way that they move. It’s so fluid ... It’s just gorgeous,” she said of the
costumes and dance. And of the music, “that was a whole range of emotions, it was absolutely just incredible.”
Ms. Gentry felt
Shen Yun delivered a message of kindness and felt humbled by the vastness of what the performance conveyed.
“I think was just such a wonderful message. Just be kind,” she said. “Please keep carrying the message.”
Reporting by Maggie Xie and Catherine Yang.
