Shen Yun Performing Arts is making a splash in Argentina’s arts community since it started performing in Buenos Aires on March 1.
Actress Norma Aleandro, who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the 1985 film “The Official Story,” said she found the performance uplifting.
“Seeing them is a miracle. The perfection, but what is more, the dissemination of so many dances and traditions, from a civilization that’s thousands of years old, and they bring it with such a marvelous display. It’s marvelous,” Aleandro said.
Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance and music company based in New York, has a unique orchestra that combines Chinese and western instruments.
In addition to a live orchestra, Shen Yun has solo performances by opera singers who sing Chinese lyrics in bel canto style opera.
“Incredible, incredible, incredible,” said Alfredo Casero, an actor and comedian.
“The beautiful piano, with a beautiful pianist and a beautiful soprano singing. So everything. Musically speaking too, it’s a lesson. And it’s totally different from what we are used to seeing.”
“The music is impeccable, the execution, from beginning to the end, is like clockwork. And both [styles] of instruments you don’t notice [the differences]. The poetry is also written so musically that all those changes in colors and nuances and timbres are very rich.”
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture through the arts, starting with its connection to the divine. Virtues like loyalty, filial piety and righteousness, which play out in Shen Yun’s performances, are a manifestation of that divinity in China’s ancient culture.
When asked what he took from the show, Andres Gribincow from Argentina’s Ministry of Culture said he there were many lessons.
“The love for nature, for the divine, for what is bright and is not always the gold, for friendship and love,” said Andres Gribincow, the secretary of Culture and Creativity in Argentina’s Ministry of Culture.
This divine magic that is expressed throughout the pieces, beyond the teachings. It’s very interesting because it takes us to something personal that is related to the hope or the wish of this divinity within us,” Norberto said Adrián Marcos.
“It’s clear that there is a very big spiritual inspiration, and the audience was inspired as well,” said actress Norma Aleandro. “There’s a huge need to connect to the spiritual self, and as this is something very personal, I think it’s good to spread it through arts. And I think that’s a big step.”