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Digital Media Executives Loves Tradition and Technology of Shen Yun
SYDNEY—Allen Sweeney, CEO of digital media giant MediaHub Australia, said Shen Yun Performing Arts was a vibrant, fabulous show that integrated modern technology into its performance really well.
Mr. Sweeney was speaking during intermission at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on Saturday night. He was seeing the New York based Shen Yun with eight staff from his company.
“The show is fabulous,” he said. “The colours, the sheer vibrance of it, it’s fabulous.”
Working in digital media, Mr. Sweeney was particularly impressed with the animated digital backdrops behind the performers, which bring to life scenes from ancient China, as well as legends about celestial beings and deities.
Allen Sweeney talks about his Shen Yun Performing Arts experience at Sydney's Capitol Theatre. (De Ming/The Epoch Times)
“It’s been seeing the interaction between the screen at the rear and how suddenly the people just pop out of the floor, it’s fantastic.”
He appreciated the humor in the dance How the Monkey King Came to Be, which depicts the legendary Monkey King causing a ruckus when he helps himself to Heaven’s peach orchard without permission. He felt the Monkey was “a cheeky little character”
Shen Yun aims to revive traditional Chinese culture by drawing from China’s 5,000 year history. Shen Yun performances are centred around classical Chinese dance, one of the most extensive and difficult dance systems in the world, but they also contain ethnic dance, as well as instrumental and vocal soloists.
There are three Shen Yun companies touring the world simultaneously, each with a live orchestra that combines Chinese and Western instruments.
MediaHub Australia is a joint venture between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the WIN Television Network, delivering over 142 channels to cities and regional areas in Australia.
Seeing the show with Mr. Sweeney was with Peter Kepreotes, Head of Broadcast Engineering and Technology for MediaHub. He said he loved the show as both an engineer and a musician. He plays piano and violin and played in the orchestra at school.
“It’s very inspiring, very uplifting,” Mr. Kepreotes said. “It’s beautiful, firstly to appreciate Chinese culture, it is an ancient civilisation, with a long history.
“Apart from that, the beautiful costumes, the very graceful dancing, also because of my profession, I appreciate the video wall [digital backdrop]. I’m a musician as well so beautiful orchestra and I appreciate the mixture of Western and Chinese instruments and music.”
He said the digital backdrops were “very impressive, very high resolution and very bright.
“With the animation, obviously it’s very well prepared, obviously a lot of preparation and good technique in bringing the three dimensional theatre to the stage. Very effective. I wish I could fit that in my home.”
He said he learned more about the spiritual side of Chinese culture from the show. Common throughout Chinese traditional culture is reverence for heaven and belief that kind acts bring rewards, and evil acts bring retribution. These themes are explored in some Shen Yun dance movements.
“One thing I learned from this performance is, from the songs, the solos, and some of the imagery, clearly in Chinese history, there’s a strong association with the heavenly world and the spiritual world,” Mr. Kepreotes said. “And that’s not often understood or appreciated in contemporary Western minds when they think of China.”
Reporting by Mary Yuan and Ethan Yang.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will perform at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre through May 6.
For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.
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