SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—For a stage production to be beautiful, the production team cannot slack off. Dave Maddux is a lighting director and expressed his appreciation to the production team behind Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“I work in the entertainment industry, so I thought from a production standpoint, it was amazing. The choreography and everybody syncing up—it’s amazing to me. It takes a lot,” he said.
Mr. Maddux specializes in lighting for movies and television. He shared that with a performance as colorful as
Shen Yun, it is difficult to dislike it.
“It’s very good. It’s hard to not like that,” he said.
Shen Yun is based in New York, and its artists are trained in
classical Chinese dance. This system of dance is where techniques for popular sports like gymnastics and acrobatics originated.
“Acrobatics and the choreography, like what the [emcee] was saying, is actually from China. That’s really new to me,” wife Ms. Maddux said.
Every year, Shen Yun puts on an all-new production. From the choreography to the
costumes to the music, each piece is customized and fresh every season.
“I was just thinking, watching other shows like The Phantom of the Opera or Miss Saigon, it’s always all the same, so you know the story that’s coming up next. But this one you really can’t, because it’s going to be different every year. So I’m looking forward to that,” she said.
The Chinese
classic story “Journey to the West” is only one among the many sources that Shen Yun takes inspiration from. With 5,000 years of culture and history, Shen Yun will not be running out of material to use any time soon.
“[A] very good experience. We will see it again,” Ms. Maddux said, adding that the
Monkey King dance left a good impression on her because of the humor and the morals it shared.
“China before communism,” which is Shen Yun’s
mission to bring to life on stage, was a place filled with spirituality. Mr. Maddux expressed that Americans can benefit from seeing what Chinese people were like before communism.
“It seems like everybody is really very spiritual, and has roots in very old China. It’s good to have other people from America see [where] Chinese Americans come from—what their past is,” he said.
Reporting by Alice Sun and Maria Han.
