DENVER—The audience was alive with excitement and ready to enjoy Shen Yun Performing Arts when the curtain rose at the Buell Theatre on April 3. Amory Host attended with his friend Sandra Russell and found much to applaud.
Mr. Host, who retired as CEO of a solar development company, said, “It was an extraordinary experience. I absolutely loved it—spectacular dance, spectacular colors, and spectacular performance all around. Absolutely loved it. My first time, but I will be back.”
Ms. Russell, a retired clinical research scientist in oncology, loved what she saw. “Certainly. It was poetry in kinetic form,” she said. “The translation of the music and the transitions of the traditions into dance. The colors, of course the ladies look like flowers dancing across the stage. It was an exquisite demonstration of history, tradition, and poetry.
Mr. Host said he appreciated that “Shen Yun’s mission is reviving that part of [Chinese] culture. We almost lost it under communism, as you can see.”
He expressed how important it is to bring back traditional culture. “It’s extraordinarily important. I have not been to China, but I want to go now and to see it. Well, not now. But I want to learn more. It’s wonderful to be exposed to it and to have the opportunity to learn more about the culture and the history of the whole area,” he said.
Mr. Host said he took in “just the beautiful expression of the human form in dance. The range of motion and the choreography of it was extraordinary.”
Ms. Russell said, “The message for me is that there is an incredible and vital importance in maintaining tradition and incorporating that into modern mores and social beliefs.”
She felt “that there’s room for the traditional as well as for the evolution of new and more creative and more inclusive philosophies for civilizations, especially as one as honorable as the Chinese have been for over 5,000 years.”
“I had the good fortune to spend a month in China as a medical exchange and was able to visit Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, and Guangzhou. It is the most extraordinary country that has so much to be proud of—their development, their history, their culture, and all aspects of their creativity and expression of that,” she said.
Shen Yun’s performance also shows China’s divinely inspired origins and spiritual traditions, which Ms. Russell liked.
“It’s interesting because I have a degree in philosophy and studied Asian philosophy— the Tao, the Buddhist, and also the Hindu, and also the transition of the Siddhartha to the Buddha and the inclusion of a single element that unites all humanity.
“Again, there’s room for specific ideologies, but there is an underlying need for unification and inclusion rather than exclusion,” she said.
Mr. Host said he “found the expression and the connection both in the messages that were sent, but also the deep spirituality that comes from movement and dance. It is a form of spirituality that is a form of expression. So it touched my soul as well, and I loved it. Beautiful.”
