MIAMI—M.J. Bixby, an investor and a business owner, brought his family of six to watch Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 11.
Mr. Bixby was quite pleased to see a Shen Yun performance for the first time. He said, “It’s quite colorful, quite athletic. Every aspect of it was an amazing portrayal of excellence.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts is a New York-based, world-premier
classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception in 2006, the company has been touring the world presenting the beauty and goodness of China before communism. The Chinese nation has a history of 5,000 years with the most recent almost 80 years under the communist party’s rule. At the hands of the Chinese communist party, traditional culture is almost lost, and Shen Yun has made the revival of traditional culture its mission.
Through dance and music, Shen Yun brings traditional values to life on stage, among which are the spiritual tenets of
Falun Gong, namely truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Mr. Bixby was particularly connected to truthfulness.
“I like the fact that there are things that pertain to truthfulness, part of one of the core values that really resonates with us in the Western Hemisphere,” he said. “And we like that truthfulness is an antidote against communism. So that’s a core value that we share in common.”
“It’s very heartbreaking to see [the
persecution of Falun Gong] in China.” Mr. Bixby said.
Mr. Bixby thought that the expressiveness of classical Chinese dance and the
spiritual depth of the Shen Yun programs are a perfect manifestation of the power of art. “A lot of songs and dance, and cultural things break through at the emotional level. The art is showing meaning and purpose and telling the story.”
“And we like the aspect of hearkening back to our Creator,” he said. “We share that same storyline in the West.”
With beautiful presentations of color and costumes alike, what lies deeper in the program was thought-provoking to Mr. Bixby.
“When you get past the colors and you start thinking about, what is it supposed to be like? What is the ideal supposed to be like? And how can we connect to our creator? It’s very deep, meaningful, purposeful, and truthful.”
Reporting by NTD and Sophia Fang.
