Shen Yun Performing Arts wrapped up its shows in Santa Barbara on March 26. The closing performance opened to a full house and finished to booming applause.
“Fabulous performance. The dancing is wonderful,” said Estelle Brutton, a nurse manager.
“It was really great and it definitely earns the name Shen Yun [the beauty of divine beings dancing],” said a young audience member Dixie Owens.
Some audience members were moved to tears by the beauty of performance.
“I loved the show. It was beautiful. I almost started crying when they first came out,” said Lisa Kenton, a real estate broker. “I think it’s just the beauty of the costumes, the elegance, and the way they flew out—it’s like they have no feet. They just float.”
“The dance itself has such movement and fluidity and heart and soul,” said Brutton.
Others resonated with the deeper meaning behind the show.
“Music is healing, music can bring us together and unify us. The divinity within all of us, and the courage and strength we all have to keep those things alive with us no matter how they are being oppressed or taken away from us. Rise above our circumstances, rise above whatever is in our way with the power within us,” said retired teacher Susan Fowkes.
The orchestra, which featured a combination of Western and Chinese instruments, was a highlight of the performance for Kenton.
“I’ve never heard anything like that. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “This is amazing.”
The New York-based classical Chinese dance show tours around the globe each year.
“We will definitely come back,” said Kenton.
“I would encourage anybody to come and see this show and to actually experience the people and their dance and their movements and their message,” said Brutton.
Shen Yun will be performing next in Thousand Oaks and Claremont in California.
