PURCHASE, N.Y.—In a tranquil hamlet in West Chester, New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts brought locals a taste of 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. For many, it’s a first.
“I think it’s fantastic. It’s beautiful to look at. It’s wonderful to listen to, to experience all of the dancers and their magnificent bodies and the technique that they brought in and learning about the culture I’ve never experienced, none of us has experienced for 5,000 years,” said Janes Barnes, former chief of staff of former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-Mo.).
Denise Pastore, director of Siemens Global Marketing, said she was delighted to see the performance: “I’m delighted to see it. It’s beautiful. The colors are beautiful, the dancers are all in sync, and the costumes are outrageous. I was just telling my husband, I kind of regret not taking my two little granddaughters here. I want to take them. It’s great.”
She said she likes how Shen Yun blends the 3D animated backdrop with the dancers’ acting: “I liked the way they did the visuals with the video and the acting and combined and you get a real sense of how everybody felt. I think that you could really feel compassion and empathy towards everyone in there. That’s my biggest takeaway.”
In ancient China, artists would meditate and cultivate virtue to create beautiful art. Shen Yun’s performers also follow this tradition, they are spiritual seekers and strive to live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Pastore noted the inner difference came through in the performance.
“I think so very much, especially that scene where they were actually holding up the banner saying that and you could see that that was really empowered and empowered them. And that came through very, very well.”
Eric Zielinski, head of a CPA firm, also took note of the artists’ inner cultivation: “how could the performance of that quality level come through without the heart? I mean, it’s the heart and the soul that causes that to be able to be performed. And they do it explicitly. I’m sorry, I just don’t have words. I really don’t, they really did take my breath away.”
Zielinski, who used to play violin as a child, praised Shen Yun’s erhu solo piece—an ancient Chinese instrument with only two strings, “the sounds that were pulled from that and expressed from there were just amazing. I’ve never heard anything like that before.”
He noted the erhu’s variability, “the amount of sounds that come out of that are tons more than we could do with a violin. And it’s just breathtaking. It really is.”
Following the performance in Purchase, Shen Yun would perform in Stamford, Connecticut.
NTD News, Purchase, New York.
