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Shen Yun ‘Positive and unbelievable’
[topic]SYDNEY—Mining engineer Mark Wayne was a first time spectator of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company, the world’s premier of classical Chinese dance and music. He saw the last performance for 2012 in Australia.
From the foyer of Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, Mr. Wayne, who attended the spectacular with his wife, their two daughters, his mother and her friend, paid tribute at Sunday’s matinee on May 6, to the Shen Yun artists.
“Really good! Great. Positive and unbelievable,” Mr. Wayne said.
His eldest daughter, Emily, aged 16, has danced ballet since age 4, so she could appreciate the technical aspects of classical Chinese dance and the traditional and ethnic dances.
“It was really good,” she said, praising the athleticism of the male dancers. “They’re so fit! They’re just like amazingly fit and they jump so far.”
Classical Chinese dance has three main components—bearing, form and technical skill. These basic elements endow a dancer with “incredible expressivity and vast creative potential,” the company website says.
Emily enjoyed them all. “Oh, it was just so amazing. It’s something so different but something so good, like it’s just opened so many more doors that we’ve never seen before,” she said. “They kind of took you on a story through the culture; it was really interesting.”
Shen Yun was created in New York in 2006 by a group of top artists with a passion to revive China’s divinely-bestowed heritage, almost destroyed after more than 60 years of communist rule, the company website says. Legends from Chinese folklore together with themes of modern-day China are dramatized through dance, song, and music.
Mr. Wayne, who had never seen classical Chinese dance before enjoyed every minute, including the Shen Yun New York Company Orchestra, conducted by Ms. Ying Chen. Each stroke of her baton was perfectly timed with a dance at hand, each note producing a mood, be it excitement, despair or joy, in an harmonious blend of ancient Chinese and modern Western instrumentals.
“Lovely, always good to hear live music,” Mr. Wayne said. “Good [music] accompanying all the dancing.”
Two dance scenes linger on in his mind, Showflakes Welcoming Spring and Lotus Leaves. Sequined handkerchiefs twirl through the air to depict snowflakes, while dancer’s full-circle fans are made to seem like lily pads swaying in the wind.
“Beautiful, and very hard to do all that coordination and dancing, it was amazing.”
Reporting by Rachael Yao and Raiatea Tahana-Reese.
Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company, one of three companies currently touring on four continents, will continue to Honolulu for performances on May 8 – 9 at Blaisdell Concert Hall.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.
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