NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.—Shen Yun Performing Arts has returned to the world’s leading performing arts facility—Lincoln Center in New York City. Two days in, over half of the shows are already sold out, and news shows have been added.
“It was aesthetically gorgeous,” said lawyer Andrew Blustein. “And I thought its message of keeping a spirituality alive after it was suppressed was great.”
“It was inspirational. Very, very inspirational,” he added. “It’s inspiring to see people over decades keep[ing] their culture alive, even when it’s easier to just give up. They didn’t give up.”
“I feel anew, I feel spiritual, I feel ready to conquer the world,” said Zohra Najib, who is a senior M&A associate at Hogan Lovells. She added that Shen Yun “was a very enlightening experience.”
“It was amazing. It’s beautiful. The clothing, the dance, the music [was] amazing, really amazing. Really, really, really blew me away. I wasn’t expecting that.” said Jack Kelly, CEO of the Compliance Search Group, an executive search firm that places finance and banking professionals for Fortune 500 companies. He’s also a senior contributor for Forbes.com.
He took note of the dancers’ techniques: “It’s hard to believe how their ability, their gymnastic ability, their acrobatic ability, their dancing. Just blew me away, blew me away.”
Shen Yun’s performances feature folk dances and mini-dramas that depict historic legends as well as stories happening in today’s China. Phil Boyle, a former New York state senator and CEO of Suffolk Regional Off Track Betting, said the performance sends an important message.
“I think we need to realize what’s happening in the persecution that’s going on in China, of the followers of Falun Dafa.”
Falun Dafa is spiritual meditation based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It has been the subject of Beijing’s persecution campaign for over two decades. Shen Yun features dance stories that depict Falun Dafa practitioners holding fast to their faith amidst persecution. The performance also seeks to showcase China before communism.
“And to know that there’s a tremendous history and culture in China, which predates communist China, [is] something that all Americans need to know about. And what’s going on in terms of human rights is a vitally important thing. And Shen Yun is a wonderful way for Americans to be exposed to it and learn about it through art and culture and dance,” added Boyle.
Kelly noted the performance shed light on tensions between the traditional way of living and modern-day trends, something that took him by surprise: “it seemed to be sort of some tug of war between two types of ways of living, more of the traditional style going back to the roots, family, all kinds of other things that you would say, here in America, like American values, American traditions. We’re seeing that here too where sometimes people are saying ‘Hey, we’re losing track of what’s going on, we’ve lost our way a little bit.’ So I was really surprised to see these threads coming through when you’re watching these dancers who are wonderful, and it is colorful and vibrant. And then this kind of subtle message weaved into it, which I didn’t expect, which was really interesting.”
He added people may come away with a second thought about how to better bring people together after watching the performance, “Because it’s no secret, whether it’s America, Europe, I think we’re seeing this across the world where there’s vast changes. People feel polarized, people are angry, people are hating each other. Politics is dividing everybody. And maybe we have to start by saying, hey, there has to be a better way to work together.”
He noted that even though Shen Yun didn’t necessarily come with that theme, “but that’s one of the outcomes I think maybe you’re looking for, where under the umbrella of having this beautiful dance and music and all that to say, hey, wait, maybe this is a way we could kind of talk about bringing people together. And maybe just make lives better for folks. Because right now, for a lot of people, they’re unhappy and they’re miserable. … So that’s kind of was an interesting takeaway that I never thought coming in. That’s what I was gonna get out of. So I was very surprised. But it was really interesting. So to have the juxtaposition between the amazing dancers, the talented people, the colors, just the whole ensemble, but then an interesting message that gets people to walk away from say, hmm, maybe we got to think about this.”
Shen Yun is in Lincoln Center through April 16.
NTD News, New York
