Business Owner Says Shen Yun ‘Was like an enchantment’

CHICAGO—Business owners Jessie and Muriel Smith thoroughly enjoyed the performance they saw by Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the Civic Opera House on Saturday, July 7. “I almost have a loss of words. I’m usually not at a loss. But, it was just fantastic. The precision, the spirit of the dancers, the people,” Mrs. Smith said about the performance.

New York-based Shen Yun thrills viewers all over the world as it brings its company of dancers trained in classical Chinese dance and their full orchestra wherever they tour.

“The live orchestra was just fantastic,” Mrs. Smith said.

The Smiths own their own accounting business and heard about the show on TV. Given that last time the show came to Chicago in April, the couple were too engrossed in tax season to attend, Mrs. Smith said: “When I saw it, the date was just too late for us to get the tickets. But, then we were fortunate and blessed to see the advertisement again and for July, and I was just excited.”

Mrs. Smith said she felt moved even by watching the TV promotion. “Then we saw a young lady in the mall in Indiana and she had a booth and we saw Shen Yun on [the TV] there,” Mrs. Smith explained.
Then the couple decided to come from the Chicago far eastern suburb.

“It was just amazing. It was like an enchantment,” she said.

In describing it, she said, “Fantastic, nothing like I’ve ever seen before. It was just moving. I felt a sense of deep spiritual connection.”

She was moved by the precision of the dancers: “I just liked the fact that [there] was such a discipline. Such a deep discipline. And the dancers all moved as one. It was like one person among many that were moving among precision.”

The couple enjoyed the bel canto style singing as well. “The voices of the singers were very moving. What they had to say was touching, and in a sense I can relate to that,” she said.

Although the solo vocalists sing in Chinese, translations of the lyrics appear in English on the backdrop behind them.

Mr. Smith mentioned liking the precision of the men’s dancing. “There was something about the martial arts practice that I liked. The Martial Arts field—I liked that one,” he said, referring to the dance Qing Imperial Guards.

The solo instrumentalist playing the erhu captivated Mrs. Smith: “We’ve never seen that before. We’ve heard it but have never seen it live. I really liked that. And the young lady [playing the instrument] it seemed was just a part of her. You know, it’s just a part of her. She put her whole mind and spirit into that of the instrument.”

Mr. Smith shared that the couple had been married 28 years and he came along with his wife because he “wanted her to be happy. She was really excited about coming and dressing up and seeing the show.”

The couple said they would definitely encourage friends and family to see Shen Yun. “I would … because it being here in America, we don’t get a whole lot of other contact with other cultural—with other people,” Mrs. Smith said.

Reporting by Sound of Hope radio network and Sharon Kilarski.

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 is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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