Shen Yun’s Revival of Ancient Culture Will ‘Rescue Humanity’

BUENOS AIRES—Shen Yun Performing Arts had a profound impact on two artists, a musician, and a singing student.

“I’m very touched,” said Silvia Ferreira, an organist from the Santo Domingo Basilica, after seeing the performance on Dec. 19 at Teatro Ópera Citi. “I’m dazzled.”

New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006 with the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture, according to the company’s website.

“After more than 60 years of Communist rule in China, and especially after the Cultural Revolution, Chinese traditional culture has been all but completely demolished,” it states. “However, the deeper spiritual core of the ancient culture, with its values of benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens, cannot be destroyed.”

It is these traditional virtues that are naturally interwoven with the array of highly technical dance moves, the towering screen showing a variety of digital backdrops, the colorful, handcrafted costumes, and an orchestra that deftly melds classical Western instruments with traditional Chinese instruments.

And it is these virtues and the ancient culture’s spiritual messages that most stood out to the artists.

The mission of reviving this nearly-lost spiritual core, “It is something that somehow it seems it will rescue us,” said Ms. Ferreira. “I think it is a philosophy and an ambition that will rescue us, humanity. I felt really good and immersed.”

The artists of Shen Yun performed to such a high degree that the Argentine artists lavished praise on them but still came short of being able to describe what they saw on stage.

“I can’t say more than beautiful things,” said Ms. Ferreira after describing the orchestra as “a masterpiece of philosophy, wonder.”

Her companion for the evening, Luciano Vázquez, a philosophy and lyrical singing student from the Manuel de Falla Conservatory, said the performance was “truly beautiful.”

“The peace that it transmits, coupled with dynamism,” he said, describing the spiritual aspect that impacted him the most. “It is not a static peace either, there is a continuous movement that they transmit through art, through the dance movements.”

Classical Chinese dance is at the core of a Shen Yun performance. Grounded in the ancient culture and passed down for thousands of years, it “is rich with expressive power,” states Shen Yun’s website.

“Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system, and so on,” it continues.

Ms. Ferreira and Mr. Vázquez were enchanted with the constant, refreshing joy shown by the performers.

“We see lots of ballet performances, Western of course, classical, and there is always a tragedy or stillness, a grimace,” said Ms. Ferreira. “Here everyone smiled in such a lovely way that made me smile all the time. It was so beautiful, and there are many aspects that you can unravel and discover.”

“I was struck by the constant smile,” Mr. Vázquez added.

And the clear difference between the men and women was something Ms. Ferreira connected to.

“I really loved that,” she said, “to see the feminine and masculine juxtaposed in harmony with the color, rhythm, picture, music, and beauty in all its sense.”

Reporting by NTD Television and Zachary Stieber.

New York-based Shen Yun has three companies that tour the world each year on a mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

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