‘Definitely worth coming,’ Neurosurgeon Says of Shen Yun

“I loved the dancing. I love the colors,” Dr. Authur Ostrowski said of the May 12 performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the Cadillac Palace Theater.
‘Definitely worth coming,’ Neurosurgeon Says of Shen Yun
Dr. Authur Ostrowski enjoys Shen Yun Performing Arts at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theater, on May 12. (Xiao Ding/The Epoch Times)
5/12/2013
Updated:
5/13/2013
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CHICAGO—“I loved the dancing. I love the colors,” Dr. Authur Ostrowski said of the May 12 performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the Cadillac Palace Theater.

Shen Yun takes the audience through 5,000 years of culture from ancient times to the present—beloved myths, legends, and history. The New York-based company does so by way of story-based dances, folk and ethnic dances, music, and vocal soloists.

Dr. Ostrowski, a neurosurgeon, stated he loved the piece with the ogre that began as a fish. According to the program guide, the dance portrays the redemption of a shape-shifting river ogre. “I liked all the sketches, ... the way the choreography was done, the way the actors seem to go into the backdrop. … That was very well done,” he said.

He described the dance When Shaolin Monks Protected the Emperor as very beautiful.

Another dance among his favorites was An Unexpected Encounter, where tourists, a father and daughter, become caught up in the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They encounter Falun Gong practitioners bravely holding a banner that reads, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance,” when they are all attacked and thrown in jail by the police.

“I think it was very well done … done tastefully. … I enjoyed that piece very much,” Dr. Ostrowski said. He was also impressed by how the storyline continued toward a positive outcome.

Along with the story-based dances, Shen Yun has a full orchestra and songs sung in an opera style by award-winning vocalists.

“The primary trait that distinguishes the singers of Shen Yun is their use of bel canto technique to sing Chinese text. This means that the singer must, while continuing to meet the challenges inherent in bel canto technique, retain proper Chinese pronunciation and diction,” the Shen Yun website states.

Dr. Ostrowski said that the vocalists were very good: “Very good at carrying the voice, and the soprano was my favorite, very strong voice and carried very well. It was a beautiful presentation. The pianist was very good.”

The lyrics of the four opera-style pieces appear projected in English and Chinese for the audience to follow. Dr. Ostrowski noted that the songs were “very good, too, interesting.

“The story was interesting—definitely worth coming,” he said.

By Xiao Ding and Cat Rooney

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.