Kendra Biegalski, the chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Party, said, “I really enjoyed it. I’ve been wanting to see Shen Yun for many years now, actually, and it’s taken us a while to get here, but I’m glad we finally made it. It was a wonderful evening.”
“It was wonderful. The color and dance were just phenomenal. And on a dark winter day like today, the performance really just lightened our evening,” said Steven Biegalski, a professor at Georgia Tech.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture from before communism, through classical Chinese dance, music, and storytelling.
“A beautiful dance, wonderful music, just captivating stories and history. I think it had color design, the costumes, choreography, it had something for everyone,” said Ms. Biegalski.
“All the dancing and the choreography, and also the way the music and the instrument, the orchestras, combine it together, you can see, especially on the screen, the animations, they jump out,” said Molly Loch, an actress.
Shen Yun’s performance also presents themes of spirituality and faith. Some audience members deeply resonated with these values.
Chad Carter, a company owner, said it was really important that the cultural and traditional values came across in the performance, especially for families. “I found it resonated. It came across through, through all of the performances. It's really hard to communicate, I think, through dance. But they're so talented, they're so good that it comes across,” he said.
“That’s what we need more today in this world, this world is so corrupt and so bad. We need people believing in God. It doesn’t matter which God, [we need] a higher being and have reverence and believe in something better than just yourself,” said Angela Tapia, a former ballet dancer.
“What I got out of it is the history of China, and traditional Chinese beliefs are very different from today’s China and the Chinese Communist Party,” said Paul Pascutti, a former corporate executive. “I think it can bring awareness to Americans. I don’t think most Americans fully understand the negative impact of communism in China and how much it changed the whole culture.”
Ms. Tapia said, “It moved me, the spiritual part, stay faithful to your religion. Don’t let the communists take over too late. And the other thing is [it's] so beautiful. It’s like food for the soul.”
Mr. Biegalski said, “I would encourage attendance. It’s a unique show that we haven’t seen before that, you know, again, was moving and powerful and actually funny as well.”
