SAN ANTONIO—Adriana Muzquiz had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts for the first time last season and loved it so much that she returned for the all-new production on Jan. 31, bringing a friend who had not experienced
Shen Yun before.
“I think I would come every year if possible. It’s something new and different, and I’m truly enjoying the dance and the performance,” said Ms. Muzquiz, a translator, at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. This time, she brought Adam Buhrow, a property insurance broker, who similarly felt it was a
performance one could attend every year.
“It’s pretty exciting, and the dance is just fantastic,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed it. Looking forward to next year too, possibly.”
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company and takes as its
mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Audience members often share that they have an interest in learning about other cultures, and are particularly interested to see a “China before communism” that Shen Yun brings to life on stage.
“It’s fascinating,” Mr. Buhrow said of the culture, which he added was entirely new to him.
He noted the recurring presence of
religions that he had not realized was so prevalent in traditional Chinese culture. Prior to the communist regime coming to power in 1949, China was a spiritual society, with morals and values from Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism commonplace. The ancient Chinese believed their culture was a gift from the heavens, divinely inspired, Shen Yun explains on their website.
Mr. Buhrow expressed support for Shen Yun’s mission. He said part of the message he saw was not letting communism take “taking away the history of the country, thousands of years worth of history, not let that be blotted out again.”
He said to see it through the
story-based dance vignettes was “just the tip of the iceberg.”
“But it’s vitally important in China and anywhere really to not lose touch with the roots of the country, your culture,” he said. “It’s just hard to get a glimpse into it, but it’s powerful ... just being able to translate a message with the dance is just amazing.”
“It’s graceful,” he said. “It’s just really graceful, to see humans move like that and tell a story at the same time.”
Ms. Muzquiz agreed, impressed with how the art told a story without words.
“It’s such a short period of time with live music, and be able to express a message with their bodies and with their hands and the costumes. I think it’s a new experience,” she said.
“Every act I see that it has a message,” she added. “Spiritual, religion,
cultural,
academically, or religious. It’s learning something new every day and learning about a different continent and their culture, their traditions, the way they live, the way they express themselves in a short, small, three, four, five-minute dance. It’s exciting.”
“It’s inspirational. It is inspirational,” Ms. Muzquiz said.
Reporting by Sally Sun and Catherine Yang.
