PARIS—Easter weekend, Jacques de Givry, a photographer in search of the world’s beauty, and his son François were moved by the grace and beauty of the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance they attended at the Palais des Congrès.
“It’s our inner world that was really challenged this afternoon. And that’s important, because we forget that we have an inner world,” said Mr. Jacques de Givry, both photographer and author/publisher of some 40 art books. He is also a knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters, and an associate member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, Letters and Arts of Versailles, both titles signifiers of his artistic recognition from his peers.
Mr. Jacques de Givry had been referring to the digital projections that enable interaction between the backdrop and the dancers, the latter sometimes disappearing into the screen, only to return to the stage a little later.
François de Givry is a chartered accountant by trade. He, too, greatly appreciated Shen Yun’s patented invention, as well as the original digital projection sets.
“It’s a pleasure to discover landscapes of this quality, and the technique you use to make the characters fit into the scenery is brilliant. It’s really very good.
“I was very moved by this show,” he said. “I’m moved, that’s true.”
“I believe that beauty saves the world,” he added. “Everything that’s interior allows us to move forward and joins us. This beauty is truly good for us. So thank you.”
“I feel very well, and like my son, I find that as a photographer I’m also a bit in search of the beauty of the world, a bit of the unusual too. But beauty is the main thing. And here, you’ve given us some. Thank you for the beauty,” says Jacques de Givry. “And also, the spirit of these shows is really good.
“Thanks in any case for the grace of all the performances we saw,” he added. “It was very graceful, and to really make people appreciate beauty, there has to be precisely a lot of grace, a lot of modesty, and at the same time a lot of exceptional performances from a gymnastic point of view.”
For the photographer, Shen Yun’s values included “beauty, which is really very important for all of us when we have a love of beauty. We saw that today, but beauty bears many things, much more spiritual.”
“You’re putting across a bit of a message of transcendence in a very ancient, very modern world at the same time, and you’re showing that modernity doesn’t lead very well to transcendence right now,” he said. “So, it was good to get the message across.”
“I found that the show brought values and a look at current events and the difficulties of our world to find ourselves. Shows like this allow people to come together. Unfortunately, China is currently forgetting about the possibility of people coming together in peace,” Mr. Jacques de Givry said, adding that Shen Yun was doing something important.
His son added: “It reaches into the inner self, and that’s a gift. As soon as you can reach it and touch it, you can share that interiority with respect for the beautiful things that come out of it.”
“So thank you. Thank you to the artists, musicians, dancers, singers, and composers, too. Thank you very much,” he said.
