Audience members watching Shen Yun in Salt Lake City appreciated the artistry and mission to bring back traditional Chinese culture.
“I love the diagrams of how they describe everything. It is easy to understand what’s going on with the different performances,” said Greg Beeston, vice president of business development at Jet Midwest, Inc. “It is very colorful, very acrobatic. Love the dance moves. It’s just been a fantastic performance all the way around.”
“Oh, so inspiring,” said April Grandpre, a singer-songwriter. “I have watched for years, the billboards and the advertisements for it, and I’ve always wanted to come. So I was just absolutely blown away and touched watching this. I think for anybody who loves art or music, or anybody who doesn’t—I don’t know how you wouldn’t love this because it was just so powerful. And the power of the music and the dancing. It was just, I mean, mind-blowing.”
Grandpre and her husband saw Shen Yun for the first time. They felt inspired after watching China’s rich cultural heritage, which was divinely inspired.
“When I was over there [in China], what I saw was a lot of, well, there wasn’t a lot of talk about religion or God. It was very much monetary-focused. And to see the spiritual side of it and all that feeling of deity and the importance of it and faith, it was really inspiring,” said David Grandpre, director of product management and marketing at Novarad.
Under China’s communist regime, those with faith are persecuted for their belief. Some of Shen Yun’s pieces expose that side of the current China and depict a sense of hope.
“I love the message about the, you know, freeing from the oppression and pain, the communist depression that we see and still see,” said David Grandpre.
“I could relate to a lot of the divine potential that they talked about with a lot of the dances and just how we all have something divine. So that really resonated with me,” said Peter Boseman, a doctor.
Audience members spoke about wanting to be a better person after watching the performance.
“They relate to all of us, there are things that we can all appreciate and feel better after. So when I was watching it, I just felt so much of a desire to be just a better person after watching it because it was so touching and moving. Just makes me want to be better,” said April Grandpre.
“We hear a lot of other things—contentions, wars, rumors of wars—and something like this is uplifting, colorful, testifying of some wonderful things in life for preserving a culture, and I think it’s fantastic,” said Beeston.
NTD News, Salt Lake City, Utah
