Shen Yun Performing Arts officially started its Germany tour on Feb. 14, with six performances in a row at the Forum am Schlosspark Theater in Ludwigsburg. The city has been hosting Shen Yun every year since 2017.
Andreas Schenkel, an executive at Mercedes-Benz said, “Great show, very nice evening.”
Maria-Luise Schäfer-Gruler, a former cultural director in a city in Baden-Württemberg added: “it’s great and it’s a total work of art. The choreography, the costumes, the music, I think everything harmonizes wonderfully together.”
“I also like it very much. I find the variety exciting, and I enjoyed the choreography. Just get involved in something new and let yourself be whisked away to new worlds,” said Christian Dietrich, the managing director of Baden-Württemberg State Chamber of Psychotherapists.
Michael Eichhorst, the managing director of Nordschwarzwald Clinic, said: “I thought the performance was very successful. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think it’s of very high quality. You can see how delicate the [dancers] are in their performance, and the music is in harmony with that. I found it very, very beautiful, and I would recommend it and would come here again.”
Mr. Dietrich believes that Shen Yun’s mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional culture is very important. He calls those values the cornerstone of humanity. “I believe [Shen Yun] is an introduction to understanding the Chinese world.” He added that “traditional values are always a good thing because that’s the foundation we all stand on.”
Miss Schäfer-Gruler added: “the wisdom of the old culture, that’s being revived, that’s being shown, is apparently forbidden in today’s China. And that’s why I think it’s particularly important to be shown.”
Gabriele Roth-Dietrich, a professor of business informatics at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, said: “I realized that Chinese culture is not one-dimensional, but includes different traditions from different regions and different ethnic groups that form into one, wonderfully. I understood that we humans have a relationship with heaven and that our goal is to return to heaven.”
Mr. Eichhorst added that he thinks “the basic values of humanity are crossing through the regions of China, and that was also presented very harmoniously.”
Shen Yun is based in New York and was established in 2006. Since then, it has grown from one troupe to eight equally large troupes that tour the globe simultaneously. But due to communist rule, Shen Yun is not allowed to perform in China.
Ms. Schäfer-Gruler said: “first of all, thank you for the work that everyone is doing, for the sacrifice that everyone is making, because if they were [in China], then they would probably be facing [different] consequences.” She added, “I wish everyone with all my heart that they may travel home [to China], that this work of art, that this show may also be shown in China, and so that a lot of people can see what they are creating.”
Mr. Eichhorst said, “if you want to be a little closer to China, to traditional China, you can experience that here.”
Shen Yun will continue its Germany tour in Mülheim on Feb. 22.
NTD News, Ludwigsburg, Germany
