ROSEMONT, Ill.— Company CEO John Hoffman and his wife Cheryle, an executive officer, had high expectations stepping into the Rosemont Theatre for Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee on April 24. They were not disappointed.
The performance was “outstanding, really. I had heard from so many people that it was outstanding. It’s even better than outstanding,” Mr. Hoffman said.
The New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by elite Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the communist party.
For 5,000 years, China’s civilization flourished under the shared belief that the divine will bless those who uphold traditional moral values. Tragically, within just a few decades of the communist party’s violent takeover, these beliefs were erased and replaced with atheism.
Mr. Hoffman resonated deeply with this spiritual element of the performance and appreciated the artists’ effort to raise awareness about the ongoing human rights issues in present-day China.
“The message is faith and the future, the spirituality—God oversees everything we do,” he said. It’s also about the “fight against [those] trying to suppress the spirituality and the freedoms of the people.”
Mrs. Hoffman, too, had a wonderful afternoon and thought “the show has really been lovely.”
“I love the interpretive dance. I love how you can understand what they’re communicating to the audience in terms of the steps, the movements,” she stated.
“I love the [animated] screen in the background—it simply just transformed the whole show into something very, very different. So enchanting and so charming. Lovely show.”
According to its website, Shen Yun’s innovative digital technology creates seamless interaction between the backdrop projection and the performers on stage. “By extending the stage to infinite realms,” this patented 3D invention brings to the audience “storytelling without limits.”
