PARIS—Among the packed house at Shen Yun Performing Arts’ performance at the Palais des Congrès on Thursday afternoon, April 17, was Father Mesrob Kerkezian, an Armenian Orthodox priest living in Lebanon.
“For me, the performance is splendid. Very beautiful—the music, the dancers,” Mr. Kerkezian said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company and has a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this show live, or even a show of this kind,” said Mr. Kerkezian, who has been choirmaster and seminary teacher at several Armenian schools in Lebanon and Cyprus.
“First of all, I'd like to offer my congratulations to the organization that came up with the idea of showing, first and foremost, the national music, the national dances, the colors [of their] nation. And that’s a very good thing. It’s about showing the world what you mean to us,” he said.
“This kind of show is magnificent,” he said.
Mr. Kerkezian said that he believes “God created us in His image ... not His physical image, His spiritual image. Today, unfortunately, there is no spiritual image. Humanity has changed. Most men have become materialistic,” yet Shen Yun showed that spiritual image of humanity.
“These things are not materialistic,” Mr. Kerkezian said. “Art—there’s art in this show—you know, is a noble thing ... art is close to Creation.”
“This kind of show brings us back to ourselves, to us human beings, to humanity, to kindness, to humility,” he said.
To the artists, he wanted to say, “God bless you all.”
“And I wish you to continue this not only in France, but perhaps also in Lebanon one day,” he hoped.
“Spiritually, I feel very calm [now]. I’m very happy to have come and seen this,” Mr. Kerkezian added. “That’s why I congratulate you once again. And I wish you every success.”
