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Shen Yun ‘Deeply Spiritual,’ Says Professor
Juli LaRosa attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)
PHILADELPHIA—The spirituality of China was displayed in full at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theater on Wednesday night as Shen Yun Performing Arts performed for the second time.
Juli LaRosa, a professor of business at Philadelphia-based Drexel University, noted the spirituality that exuded from the performance.
She said she found Shen Yun to show the “deeply spiritual nature” of Chinese culture.
Shen Yun seeks to revive traditional Chinese culture through performing arts and music, namely using classical Chinese dance to express the inner meanings of it. According to the company, much of China’s traditional culture was destroyed under six decades of communist rule, particularly during the Cultural Revolution.
“The dancers care about what it is that they’re doing” and “carry themselves with quite a good posture,” said Mrs. LaRosa.
[topic]Classical Chinese dance is considered one of the most comprehensive styles in the world, having been passed down for thousands of years, according to the company. It was mainly confined to China’s imperial court, but later became systematized and has its own postures, movements, and tumbling techniques.
She also found the costumes to have a “flow” to them and “catches you off guard. Because we don’t have that so much in [Western] ballet… the flow.”
The company says it painstakingly collects numerous designs of Chinese traditional attire, ranging from generals, ministers, emperors, to the styles worn by common people. The costumes are displayed in a multitude of “brilliant colors,” the website says.
Overall, Shen Yun “was lovely and elegant” and said she had little idea that traditional Chinese culture—which throughout history, has been influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism—had such a strong spirituality to it.
The show was not only “beautiful,” Mrs. LaRosa said, but some of the stories, which are drawn from Chinese history, were “light-hearted, as well.”
Reporting by Shar Adams and Jack Phillips.
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. The season concludes this month with performances in Honolulu and Buffalo.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.
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