CHICAGO—The spirituality was one of the things Jim Nelson, an artist and illustrator, really liked about Shen Performing Arts New York Company’s performance at the Cadillac Palace Theater on Sunday afternoon, May 12. “It’s just thought provoking,” he said.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive the divinely inspired traditional Chinese culture through dance, music, and song. The corner stone of a Shen Yun performance is story-based dance, and classical Chinese and ethnic dance.
“I think it’s really terrific so far,” said Mr. Nelson at intermission. “I really like the costumes. I love the stories behind the performances, like the mythology and some of the sentiment behind some of them.”
As an artist, and having an eye for color, he said he loved the colors in Shen Yun. “It’s wonderful, especially the color in motion too. I was commenting to my sister that I loved the long sleeves in some of the dances, and they use them to create motion and emotion,” he said.
“The costumes themselves are really beautiful, and there is a great variety of them too,” Mr. Nelson explained. “I assume they each reflect a different aspect of Chinese culture and history. ... It seems like they put some serious thought into it.”
According to Shen Yun’s website: “Every detail is given meticulous attention and is a result of artistic inspiration and careful polishing. Their objective is an authentic presentation of the attire that comes from China’s divinely inspired traditional culture.”
“What I know of the spirituality of Chinese culture, I think it is something we could use more of in the world now, because to me it seems to be much more about treating each other right and finding inner-peace,” Mr. Nelson said.
After seeing Shen Yun, Mr. Nelson said he would tell his friends, “To go see it!”
Reporting by Teresa Liu 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.
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