LAKELAND, Fla.—The Sorensens had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts before, and so when it came time for Hannah to choose her 10th birthday event, she told her parents she wanted to see
Shen Yun again.
“I love it because it’s beautiful, and I have never seen that kind of dance before,” said the birthday girl. The family saw the performance at the Youkey Theatre in Lakeland, Florida, on Jan. 15, and Jonathan Sorensen, an IT security professional, and Kendra Sorensen loved the performance as much as their daughter.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier
classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to show audiences five millennia of Chinese civilization through the arts—to show the world China before communism.
“We’re very glad to be back,” said Mrs. Sorensen.
From the display of
technical mastery to the expert delivery of profound content, Mr. Sorensen found the performance to be an uplifting one.
“Beautiful. I love the athleticism of the performers, just how beautiful and graceful they are, the outfits, the colors, everything about it is just so beautiful, impressionable,” he said.
“I feel great. It’s a wonderful performance. It really does help you appreciate life, appreciate just the world that we live in, the natural world,” Mr. Sorensen added.
“It helps you to understand that, you know, the modern world really isn’t all that great, you know. Traditions and just getting back to the real world is what is valuable.”
The Sorensens appreciated that Shen Yun was sharing the authentic Chinese culture with the world—one that is
divinely inspired and holds beliefs such as the idea that good will be rewarded and evil punished, divine intervention, and the importance of spiritual self-betterment.
Mrs. Sorensen said she was grateful that
Shen Yun was exercising freedom of expression and freedom of religion, even using art to highlight that such freedoms don’t exist in China today.
She said she found the performance inspirational and “very positive.”
Mr. Sorensen agreed, noting that throughout all the
stories, the artists conveyed love.
“There’s no anger or hate,” he said. “It is just love and appreciation for all humans.”
Mr. Sorensen said it was a
performance everyone needed to see.
“You have to watch it. It is a beautiful performance. The grace of the
dancers is just absolutely incredible. The feats that they pull off, with the flips, and everything, it’s just incredible. It really is enjoyable,“ he said. ”Everybody needs to see this.”
Reporting by NTD and Catherine Yang.
