SACRAMENTO—“They’re such pros,” Ilse Pastor, a professional pianist, spoke about the Shen Yun Orchestra, “I mean, they were all right on time. They were following the conductor perfectly. It was perfectly timed with all the dancing as well. It was very enjoyable.” Ms. Pastor and her daughter watched the
Shen Yun performance at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center on Jan. 29.
Founded in New York in 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Its
mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. For millennia, the Chinese believed their culture divinely inspired, but under the communist regime, this culture has been almost lost. With dance and music, Shen Yun presents to the world the beauty and goodness of China before communism.
A Shen Yun performance includes
classical Chinese dance, folk, and ethnic dances, as well as solo performances by musicians and singers.
Ms. Pastor loved the erhu performance as well as the pianist’s accompaniment. “The pianist was great, with the soprano and the other musician [who played the Chinese instrument called erhu],” she said. “Erhu sounds like someone’s voice. It’s very beautiful.”
With the soprano’s performance, Ms. Pastor said that she resonated with the message of the song. “The
soprano was really good. And I also liked the message of what she was singing about, that humans maybe have an aspect of them that are divine as well.”
“I loved all the costumes and the colors. And yeah, the dancing, I really liked the peacock dance, the golden peacock dance,” she added.
Ms. Pastor gained a new understanding of the Chinese culture through Shen Yun. She said that Shen Yun “gives you context to the Chinese history, and so because we often [only] see images, but it’s really nice to see the story, the music, the story, and the dancing come together.”
“I hadn’t realized it, but the
spiritual component is a big part of Chinese culture. It’s a tradition that should continue to be alive.”
Ms. Pastor said that her biggest takeaway was learning how much Chinese culture has influenced the world over the years.
“It’s amazing. I think the takeaway is that Chinese culture is obviously ancient, so many people [cultures] have borrowed from it, and so I think that makes it very important as well. I didn’t know that all the pirouettes and the jumps ... I thought they were gymnasts, so I was very surprised that all of that is incorporated in the Chinese
traditional dancing.”
Being inspired, Ms. Pastor said that she would “start incorporating or looking at some Chinese music and incorporating it into classes or pieces. I think that would be really cool to do.”
Ms. Pastor said that Shen Yun “is definitely a must-see.”
Reporting by Lily Yu and Sophia Fang.
