BATON ROUGE, La.—Jim and Carmen Board had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts in its early years. Formed in 2006 by elite artists with a
mission to show the world the traditional Chinese culture that could not be found in China today under communist rule, New York-based Shen Yun has since grown to eight equal-sized companies that simultaneously tour the world each season for nearly a million audiences.
“It was great then. It’s even better now,” said Mr. Board, a retired university professor. The Boards saw
Shen Yun at the River Center Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Jan. 11.
“Very entertaining to begin with. Also very uplifting, very, almost—it’s a difficult word to express—scintillating,” he said. “It’s a very heightened sense of almost euphoria. The pictures, the whole thing, the whole performances almost put you in a higher level of consciousness.”
Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, renowned for reviving the ancient art form. With its emphasis on inner bearing, classical Chinese dance is
famously expressive, and used in Shen Yun for storytelling.
“Very delightful,” he said. “Chinese traditional culture is very spiritual.”
“The message, I guess, is to lead a more serene life,” he added.
Mr. Board said he enjoyed the stories that conveyed the divinely inspired traditional Chinese culture, and the masterful way the
artists performed was what made the performance so evocative.
“They must do a tremendous amount of practice. The costumes are fantastic. The input with the screen there and the people coming in and off of it is very creative and very entertaining,” he said. “The music is gorgeous.”
Mrs. Board, a yoga teacher, said the stories and
dancers were phenomenal.
“I think they glow, and they flow,” she said. “They glow because they are all so beautiful, smiling .... that is so phenomenal.”
Reporting by Sonia Wu and Catherine Yang.
