MIAMI—Singer, composer, vocal producer, and TV presenter Minerva Borjas and multimedia music producer Andres Daza expressed their admiration after watching Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 12.
Ms. Borjas emphasized “the crafting, the impeccable execution of the artistic part, the choreography, and the beauty of the color combinations of the costumes” and how “everything [comes together] to generate an atmosphere and an impressively powerful effect.”
“I think that art has always been a very beautiful form of expression, but I think that when it is taken to a more historical, more cultural level, it has a little more power and weight,” she said.
“It was spectacular,” Mr. Daza said, adding that he was “inspired and touched in a profound way by a completely foreign story, from another part of the world, but one that has a lot of themes parallel to spirituality and the search for the truth of ourselves, no matter where we are from, where we come from, how we are.”
“You can see that he’s very upright and very present in his conviction. It is very nice to see him and admire him,” she said.
Ms. Borjas said that Shen Yun was an example of art that is created for the purpose of connecting to something bigger. She also said that she could feel the energy from the music performed by Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which is a unique combination of traditional Chinese and Western instruments.
“The music is very powerful [and connects to an] indescribable, almost magical place,” she said. “All the images ... of divinity in the company of music, [it] makes you feel embraced by that divinity.”
“[I’m] very grateful that they made all this effort to bring us that example of love, of divinity and compassion as well,” she said.
“As an artist ... I think you have to make an effort to ... preserve the right to spiritual practice,” Ms. Borjas said.
“I think in the thousands of years there has always been that war against freedom of expression and freedom to practice your divine principle, of your most powerful human principle—because art and spirituality together make an impressive power.”
Many of Shen Yun’s founders and some of Shen Yun’s current performers fled to the United States to escape persecution. Ms. Borjas, who experienced living under a communist regime in Venezuela, could see the value in Shen Yun’s efforts to show audiences what is currently going on in present-day China.
“Sometimes creating art for the simple fact of selling is not the same as telling a story that we are living, in which we believe,” Ms. Borjas said.
Dance and music have often been hailed as universal languages because they transcend cultural and language barriers and allow everyone to understand what is being expressed.
“I think art does that,” Ms. Borjas said. “Art ... transcends even cultural gestures. I think we can all understand beauty without it having a sticker on it. As an artist, I defend and support everything that has to do with that purity that connects us.”
Mr. Daza said, “I think they do a very nice job of representing the story in a very striking way with the art, the use of color, animation, dance; at the same time, it’s a way to get to appreciate a cultural aspect of China. ... I was delighted to be able to learn.”
“It is a unique opportunity to admire and support a movement like this, so that there will continue to be more,” she said. “Come to experience a pure form of love and divinity that is within us.”
