Audience members shared their joy, and amazement, and support for Shen Yun’s mission.
“It was amazing. The dancers, the background, the colors … all very beautiful,” said Kevin Gallagher, the president of a software company, at The Long Center for the Performing Arts. “As soon as the curtains opened—all of it—it’s appealing to the eyes as it is appealing to the heart and appealing to the senses.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s leading classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization—in effect, China before communism.
“It was just very inspirational,” Mr. Gallagher said.
“Creating something new, bringing something new to the forefront—because that’s also what I do in my career—and show that you are mentoring and guiding, that was very inspirational,” he said.
Music theatre performer Les Young and musical director Chester Eitze felt Shen Yun certainly lived up to its name—which translates into “the beauty of divine beings dancing.”
The main thing is, it’s so visually stunning,” said Mr. Eitze, who was the Bastrop Opera House executive director for many years and had seen Shen Yun before. “You have the projections, you have the technical aspects, but then what they do is they emphasize the body and how the human body moves. I think that’s what divine is. Divine movement, divine spiritual body. It’s just amazing, stunning.”
“[Shen Yun] took me away from the daily problems that we’re thinking about and into the artistic, the divinity,” Mr. Young said.
“The saddest thing … [is that] these performers cannot do this in China now, and that’s very painful,” Mr. Eitze added.
Since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, the regime has sought to destroy China’s connection to its divinely inspired past, through often violent revolutions every decade or so.
Retired U.S. Army colonel Phil Waldron said that during his career in the military, he had the opportunity to learn about both pre- and post-communist China and was supportive of Shen Yun’s mission to revive the ancient culture through beauty.
“It’s very important to see what things could be like in a communist-free China, [and] to bring back a lot of the rich heritage of the culture,” he said on Dec. 29.
Interior designer Sharon Karch, who saw the Dec. 27 performance, said she had grown up training in classical dance and couldn’t help but watch the dancers with a trained eye.
“The dancers were pristine,” said Ms. Karch.
“I have never seen dancers move their legs up and out like that. It was incredible, the flexibility, and the strength, and the ultimate precision of all the dancers working together. There was not one mistake. Not one,” she said. “They were all together, together in sync, not missing a beat.”
Local lawmakers lauded Shen Yun’s beauty and mission as well.
Texas State Senator Donna Campbell enjoyed a performance on Dec. 28 and personally presented the artists with a a certificate commending their mission.
“This is a certificate of honor for the performance, for the mission to put China before communism, and I support that strongly. Any legislation that we can put forward, I would do that,” said Ms. Campbell at The Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Ms. Campbell said she wanted to extend a message of encouragement, hoping the dancers “continue performing because the blessing of perseverance—is success.”
Oklahoma State Senator George Burns attended a performance in Austin on Dec. 29, likewise commending the mission.
“It’s very, very good,” he said. “You would have to see it to believe how good it is. It is excellent.”
