LOS ANGELES—Costume designer Rosi Gabl saw much that resonated with her in Shen Yun Performing Arts, from the spirituality of traditional Chinese culture to the unique use of costumes to the message she felt the performance conveyed.
“It was beautiful. It was amazing ... I am very happy that I finally got to the chance to see it. It was amazing—absolutely gorgeous, touching—goes really into the heart,” said Ms. Gabl at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Jan. 19.
“The costumes are amazing ... The music is amazing!” she said. “It was beautiful, beautiful ... time flew by.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, showing audiences a China before communism.
Ms. Gabl said she is a practicing Buddhist, and saw in Shen Yun freedom of belief that contrasted the current communist China.
“I’m absolutely happy,” she said. Between that freedom, and “then just the beauty of all of it—the colors, the little stories, the performers are amazing and the costumes are just a must-see—it’s very touching, and very spiritual, and beautiful.”
According to Shen Yun’s website, the couture costumes are based on traditional Chinese dress and designed in-house by Shen Yun’s artistic director.
“I haven’t seen anything like that, even though I work for film and television,” she said. Indeed, the animated backdrop is Shen Yun’s own patented technology, and Ms. Gabl marveled at how the performers seemed to travel between screen and stage.
“I think it was a very spiritual experience, and it gives people hope to see it,” she said. “It’s very inspiring and gives us, hopefully every viewer, hope for the future.”
“It was really, really nice, very inspired,” she said. “Just so inspiring, and for the future, I definitely want to see every show in the future.”
