SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Dancers ‘Make It Look so Effortless’: Birmingham Ballet Teacher

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Shen Yun Dancers ‘Make It Look so Effortless’: Birmingham Ballet Teacher
Krysta Nowill, a local ballet teacher, at the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts in Birmingham, England, on April 2, 2022. NTD

BIRMINGHAM, UK—Shen Yun Performing Arts continued to charm Britain’s second city on the afternoon of April 2 with its unique art form, as it played to a sold-out audience at the ICC in Birmingham.

The technique and strength behind the beauty and effortless grace of Shen Yun dancers impressed local ballet teacher Krysta Nowill.

“The stretches, the leaps are just incredible. It’s so just amazing to see it look so effortless,” she said. Everybody always thinks ‘oh, that looks easy.’ It’s incredible the strength that they’ve got to just make it look so effortless.”

Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company.
But for Ms. Nowill the performance was far more than a showcase of technical mastery of dance.

“The orchestra, the colours, the sound—brilliant. I loved it from start to finish,” she said.

She was so absorbed in the performance, that she felt that time flashed by. “It was brilliant to watch, ” she said. “It felt like it'd been 10 or 15 minutes because it just pulls you in, and then the time just goes—just amazing. ”

New York-based Shen Yun’s mission is to revive the 5,000 years of divinely imparted Chinese culture from before the communist era. They use the art form of classical Chinese dance to bring that culture to life on stage, and to tell stories from China’s rich cultural heritage. 
“The dance is so expressive,” said Ms. Nowill. Even without the introductions to the stories by the emcees, she said she would have clearly understood.  “You knew the story from the way that they moved. And they told it brilliantly.”

She said that dancers gave it their all on stage, bringing the freshness and energy of a first performance, even though they are on a packed tour schedule.

“I think they just bring so much joy,” she said.

Paul Litherland and Carol Williams at the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts in Birmingham, England, on April 2, 2022. (Lily Zhou/The Epoch Times)
Paul Litherland and Carol Williams at the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts in Birmingham, England, on April 2, 2022. Lily Zhou/The Epoch Times

Shen Yun ‘Breathtaking, It Is so Beautiful’

Also in the audience was a couple who had travelled 140 miles from Dorset to see the show in Birmingham.

Carol Williams, a business support worker, said that she bought tickets for herself and her fiance, Paul Litherland, a biochemist for the NHS after being captivated by an advert on Facebook six months ago.

Ms. Williams said, “I thought ‘I’ve got to come and see this,’ because I love dance and I love ballet.” 

She wasn’t disappointed.

“It’s breathtaking, it is so beautiful,” she said. “And I love sitting near the front, I like to hear their feet on stage and then you hear the twangs of the bows.

She said she loved the costumes and colours. “They’re so well lit as well it really brings out all the depth and intensity of the color, which is just stunning as well—the costumes are just wonderful.”

Her fiance, Mr. Litherland, described the costumes as beautiful. “They’re flowing, they’re just wonderful.”

He said that he loved the use of the digital animated backdrop, a unique feature of Shen Yun, which seamlessly integrates characters on stage with the same characters in a projection. “They jump off the back of the stage and they’re flying up into the sky—that’s brilliant. I’ve never seen that before.”
Another unique feature of Shen Yun is it’s live orchestra, thought to be the only permanent orchestra to combine classical Western orchestral instruments with traditional Chinese instruments.

“[It was a] beautiful orchestra,” said Ms. Williams,“ and some of the instruments are just so fascinating to look at. They’re just beautiful instruments and the playing is just so professional.”

Along with the dance performances, was a solo tenor performance, which they both loved.

“And his voice ... ,” said Mr. Litherland. “Oh my goodness, he raised the roof.”

Reporting by NTD and Lily Zhou.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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