Shen Yun Amazes Berkeley Audiences on Opening Night

December 13, 2018

Shen Yun Performing Arts has arrived in the San Francisco Bay area for the 2019 season in Berkeley. Audience members were inspired after watching the first performance at Zellerbach Hall.

John Hamilton, radio host for KGO radio since 1987, experienced Shen Yun on Dec. 12 and said, he appreciated the dancers and their interaction with the animated projected backdrop.

“The dancing, the choreography is beautiful,” said Hamilton. “And the other thing about it, well, besides the costumes, of course, which are…and what they do in the costumes. But I think that backdrop is something sensational. You don’t know what to expect and then all of a sudden, this magical thing happens, so that’s pretty exciting.”

“Tonight was an eye-opener,” said Robert L. Rossi, Senior Account Executive at CBS Radio. “It was magnificent.”

“I can‘t imagine how hard it is to add all breath in each move,” said Tatyana Martin, ballet teacher at Bay Area Ballet Conservatory and Product Designer. “It’s a lot of training. They’re telling a good story with their movements.

“For the man and woman, and they’re all so extremely talented,” Hamilton added.

As a westerner, Hamilton might not appreciate that China’s culture began thousands of years ago, but he said Shen Yun can help him learn that it’s more than what we see today.

“And I think what you’re doing is you’re taking this China of stretching back 5,000 years and introducing it to us, in an interesting way that we can understand it because of dance. And I think that’s what’s important as we reach out all over the world to know more about countries. I thought it was very, very interesting.”

Ilene Eng, NTD News, Berkeley