(Clearwisdom.net) Shen Yun Performing Arts third and final show in Geelong, Australia was met with an enthusiastic standing ovation and five curtain calls. Shen Yun received high praise from audience members from various performing arts professions, including Meryl, the owner of a Melbourne dance studio specializing in ballet, who came to see it for the fourth time.

Meryl, the owner of a Melbourne dance studio specializing in ballet, saw the show for the fourth time

"I thought it was such a wonderful, wonderful show. We are very lucky to have such a beautiful group of dancers come to Australia," Meryl enthused. "Of course this is not my first time, this is my fourth time I've seen this beautiful group."

Meryl said, "We love all of it. [The dancing] is wonderful today. I don't think there's anything [in the show] we don't enjoy. It's just so glamorous, it's so pretty, it's so colourful, it's so beautifully portrayed."

Meryl was impressed by the narrative style of authentic Chinese dance as performed by Shen Yun, which tells a story with every dance performance. "We get Chinese cultural stories all set in dance, so I think that's just the most marvelous part about it--that we get to see Chinese culture in Australia. We don't have to travel anywhere."

Meryl was also struck by the beautiful music and the costuming of the show, "The costumes are the highlight. We just love it all, every bit."

Ms. Quirk and her daughter Sherine, both dance teachers, attended the show. Sherine said, "I've been a dance teacher for about 10 years and I have danced for 25 years. What impressed me, was that they actually brought the stories into the dance and I think, as somebody who hasn't been associated with this type of dancing before, it was a really big learning curve for me. So it was great to come and not only learn about traditional dance, but also about some of the stories--and then you've got the costumes, which just made everything so beautiful as well. So it was just absolutely fantastic!"

Ms. Quirk and her daughter Sherine, both dance teachers

Sherine was also amazed by the technical aspects of the dances, "Using hand-held props is just so difficult to learn and also to teach people, so it's absolutely amazing they can hold so many things in their hands and still get the technique right, make it look beautiful, and not drop them. It's just amazing because I know how hard it is."

As a trained professional, she was impressed by many aspects of the performances, "To tell you the truth, the whole thing impressed me. Every single thing. There was something ... a part of every single dance that just stood out. For example, the use of the fans, the pink fans, the flow of the material coming off them and the dynamics of the choreography to go with that ... It was all so soft here, and then you had the little flutter of the fans and the flicking and then it came around to open up into a flower. That one, that bit absolutely stunned me, it was just so gorgeous."

"And also when I talk about the dynamics, it was fantastic. Mum and I were there just going, 'Oh my goodness, look at this, look at this, look at this!' And the men with their jumps and their technique. I know it's a little bit of a different technique from what we do here in Australia but their lift and their height ... just wonderful! I had no idea [of] the origin of some of those flips and some of those jumps. I thought they were just in, you know, normal dancing, but I never knew they originated from all of this."

Ms. Quirk, also a dance teacher, was equally impressed. "It's just so vibrant, so together, it was all a beautifully told story all the way through. And to actually see the cultural side to everything impressed me because, I mean, it all came through. It's beautiful. I loved it. The flow of it, just the movement. It moved me."

Sherine also found the music very expressive. "It's more expressive than normal dance, I say normal dance as in Australian dance or contemporary and things like that. I think that the music matched the stories, especially in the one in the present day with the man that was taken away from his family [Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution]. It nearly brought me to tears ... and part of that was the music as well, because it just highlighted the dance. Everything just went together perfectly and it just made this huge impact."

Ms. Quirk explained that sometimes music seems to take away from the dance. "But because it all gelled together, with music and the dance, it was just magical."

"It invoked so much mental imagery that it's almost overwhelming," added Sherine. "Because your mind's going 100 miles an hour and you're watching everything. It almost indulges the five senses. You're enveloped by everything. It takes you with it. It's like it grabs you and takes you away."

Her mother added, "You're drawn right into it and if you're not a believer, you end up believing,"

Sherine also spoke about the lyrics and narrative from the performance, "Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution," "I think that the message in that is that, even though bad things do happen, there is always hope and there is always something better to work towards. And I think that one in particular really grasped that story ... Have hope, you know, work towards it and you'll find a better place. It seems that so much happiness and hope can come out of such sadness and devastation. And I think that's a beautiful way to be."

Ms. Jessop, an arts teacher in theatre, attended with her son, Lauchlan, who is student of ballet.

Ms. Jessop, an arts teacher in theatre

Ms. Jessop said, "I thought it was fantastic the way that the music also spoke through the dance and the story spoke through the dance, it involves everything. As an arts teacher in theatre, it was really exciting to see it on stage. I'd love to be able to do that here, and for my son who's also at our school--he's doing ballet, and he found it fantastic to see so many men dancing on stage, because in most of the ballet classes here in Australia, like our school, we only have two ballet dancers for the males, so it's fantastic."

"I love the marriage of the arts with the dance, because it's just so artistic to see the story come through the dance. I loved it," she said.

Ms. Jessop shared her experience, "We do some traditional Chinese fan dances, but I would certainly consider telling them now to go and see this and see it in real life, because you'd be quite inspired."

Ms. Jessop added, "The costuming, the way it was done, the way the dance totally complemented what the story was, the way it was presented, just made the whole picture perfect, I loved it."

She noticed the tranquility of the dancers' hand movements. "They just come across that this is a total being and I'm loving this, and you're going to love it with me--and we did! When you can be there saying, 'I want to be there with them, they just look so fantastic, they're in this beautiful place.' It was beautiful!"

Seeing Shen Yun for the first time treated drama teachers Mr. and Mrs. Dolista to beautiful imagery. "I'm thoroughly enjoying it! The actual precision of the dances and the performers is spectacular," Mr. Dolista said.

Mr. and Mrs. Dolista, both drama teachers

Mrs. Dolista said, "The multimedia is fantastic. Fantastic! The skill is wonderful. And the costuming! I love the big sleeves, how they add to the movement of the act, the performers, and the dancers. The costuming and that extra fabric ... it makes it seem like they're floating across the stage."

She was struck by the vibrant use of color in the show, "Oh, the colors were divine, they're stunning, like the bright blues and pinks--they're just captivating. The colors of the clothing, they're really beautiful, fantastic, really great. I think it's captivating. The dancers' clothing--they all have something bright, like a bright blue, and they'll have sort of pastel colors complementing the bright color, and your eyes are just drawn."

Mr. Dolista added, "You're definitely smiling throughout the whole. It's very vibrant, especially when the Buddhas came down--it was wonderful.

"And the Monkey [The Monkey King Triumphs]--I've been a fan of Monkey. I've read the translation of it and I also watched the TV series when I was younger, so it was great to see all that. It's a good little sampler of each dance style and a little bit of a history lesson."

"Every time the curtain opens, you want to know what's going to be next and what you're going to see. They're so light on their feet, it's like they're floating," Mrs. Dolista said.

"In Heaven Awaits [Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution], when all the Buddhas came and the celestial maidens ... it makes the spirituality of it tangible." She also said the show takes "the audience on a journey that is sort of enlightening and spiritual and uplifting. ... You're enthralled by all you see."

The couple also appreciated the difficult technical aspects of the performances. Mrs. Dolista said, "I think you just appreciate the skill and the expertise of all the performers--that precision, and the timing, and the dedication, and the training!"

Mr. Dolista added, "You have to tell a story in a very short amount of time, so for example, in Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution, they had three or four minutes to tell a fairly serious story, but they captured it very well in that short amount of time--the same with The Monkey King Triumphs. It's just very well told."

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/14793/
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