NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.— Shen Yun Performing Arts gave the audience a special experience during the matinee at the State Theatre New Jersey on March 23. George and Brandis Riba were impressed with the performance.
Mr. Riba, an accountant, said this was the first time to see Shen Yun. “The colors were beautiful, and the synchronization was excellent. Just very exciting,” he said.
“I‘ll tell you, I’ll be honest, [Shen Yun] brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. I’m a little sensitive; I’m emotional talking about it. But that scene where the communists came in—it just like made me cry. Very emotional.”
Mrs. Riba described how the communists treated her husband’s family. “When he was 7— he always tells us the story of his mother and his aunts and the [soldiers] take away their possessions.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, and its mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and show audiences “China before communism.”
The program spans five millennia, including stories set in the modern day like the one that brought tears to Mr. Riba’s eyes. In these stories, which are based on true current events, characters are shown holding onto faith and traditional culture despite oppression.
“The story is interesting,” Mr. Riba said. “It was just fun to watch and to see the storyline from start to finish.”
The communist regime rules modern China and persecutes people of belief. Mrs. Riba said that her husband “is from Cuba and they had to flee Cuba too because of communists. So it means a lot to us.”
Shen Yun’s performance features a 3D screen that interacts with the performers and has delighted many members of the audience. Mr. Riba said, that he “enjoyed the screen in the back, the backdrop.”
“Oh, it’s beautiful. The landscape is beautiful. The cherry blossoms. The ladies look beautiful; they are very refined, and very gorgeous and graceful,” Mr. Riba said. “It’s just pleasant to see, and it’s very pleasant to the eye. The music is beautiful—very creative use. The dancing is beautiful—very creative use.”
“I’m very excited,” she said. “I love to watch all the choreography and the staging. I love the sleeves. I love the color, I love the great use of the dress like the flamenco dancers do, but in its own way. I just love everything. It’s just beautiful.”
As an instructor, Mrs. Riba appreciated the training and skills of the dancers. “I do teach. Years ago, I used to teach at Rutgers, but now I’m semi-retired.”
Mrs. Riba thought it beautiful.
“We love the backdrop. I really enjoy the grace of the [dance] mixed together with the ability to do gymnastics. It’s wonderful. It’s hard to see grace and strength done that well. It really is beautiful.”
With her comprehensive understanding of dance, Mrs. Riba understood the training required for a Shen Yun performance. “I know that it takes like five hours to do, like, two minutes of [a dance],” she said. She also praised the dancers’ musicality.
“You know that dance is a physical expression of music,” Mrs. Riba said. “As a choreographer I can tell you that I love it when the motions of the dancers look like how the music sounds. You don’t always get that. The [dancers] really are nailing it.”
“I love the spiritual aspect. In Cuba they had beautiful dancing, too. We do it more in the United States now because Cuba is totally poor now. I don’t know about what’s going on in China,” Mrs. Riba said.
“But if they were doing this in China right now, more people would visit China. It is beautiful to see the heavenly aspects. Everything good in this world comes from that; everything bad in this world comes from not believing in that,” she said.
