Shen Yun was met with a full house on the first stop of this year’s UK tour on Jan. 4 and 5. In the city of Woking, people from all walks of life shared their impressions of the performance.
“Vibrant and explosive,” Councillor Ann-Marie Barker said. “This is obviously so much more than dance.”
“It’s just totally different to any other experience I’ve seen before on theatre,” she said.
“Full of energy, full of color, really exuberant. Absolutely perfect,” she added.
“Beautiful, colorful, mesmerizing,” said lawyer and partner of law firm GRATA International.
“A feeling of serenity, and calm.” Clare Render, CEO of Wipe Out Limited, was also impressed.
All Shen Yun dancers are first-rate classical Chinese dance artists.
Their highly skilled physical movements are coupled with world-class orchestral music and unique stage craft.
“The dancer, it must be so well practiced, because they are just absolutely perfect, aren’t they? In terms of the dancing they do. And I think that’s added to by having the remote screen, so people literally had dancing into the screen, and you’ve got all the energy of that having the video impact as well just brings it alive,” said Ann-Marie Barker.
“I am so impressed,” said Louise Morales. “I love the leaps, really high. Love the timing, absolutely perfect split-second timing, with a whole lot of them, absolutely, and spot on, completely the same as everyone else. Such fantastic colors. Love the special effects in the computer-generated backgrounds which fitted with the timing of dancers.”
She said the dancers were “so professional, brilliant.”
‘Couldn’t Hold My Tears Back’
Chloe Tuffin is the director of one of the international accounting firms. “Absolutely amazing. It’s beyond what you would imagine. And my particular favorite was the dancing with the vases on their heads. It was amazing.”
“There were so many dances that really brought out the spirit of the performers,” she said. “I learned something as well about the spiritual side of traditional Chinese culture. So it was fantastic.”
Aliya Aralbayeva was touched by a different scene. “The scene about motherly love to baby and to daughter. It was very touching. I couldn’t hold my tears back.”
‘Getting in Touch With Ourselves’
Many audience members embraced the message behind the dances.
“Very moving, very meaningful,” said Clare Render. “And it sort of did bring you back to where we should be as people, getting grounded, getting in touch with ourselves, and forgetting the negative energy that goes around us.”
“It’s something that I wanted to watch for a very long time. And to actually see it in live action. It’s just breathtaking,” Tracey Pemberton said. “It takes you on a massive journey, and you are learning about the culture, and it’s calming at the same time, because the shape it will make, like the stories that they talked about, and their displaying [is] just inspiring.”
It was “just so artistic. And I was just thinking that they tell beautiful stories without words, just movements, and it’s just stunning,” she said.
Shen Yun has seven other troupes traveling throughout the United States, as well as over 20 countries around the world.
The new season tour will run until May.
NTD News, Woking, Britain.
