(Clearwisdom.net)

Marketing Manager: "Very Magical"

Melanie Edwards, a marketing and business development exhibit manager with Flaky, visited China in 2009. Her introduction to Shen Yun was through a kiosk with a video showing the beauty and grace of Shen Yun. "Just looking at that... [I knew] I would just like to experience it. I just thought it was a phenomenal, amazing, just wonderful experience. It's good to get that Chinese culture, just to see that overall dance performance, see exactly how their culture is dance-wise. It was just beautiful, very magical.

"The scenery was phenomenal. I really like the way they use the backdrop in the performance--you don't see that a lot--and also the costuming, the colors and how they incorporated their faith, their religious culture, within the dance and gave you the story line before each dance performance. I thought that was unusual, but it also helped us to be able to follow each dance."

Ms. Edwards is not a stranger to Chinese culture. "I've always enjoyed Chinese music, traditional music, I grew up listening to it as child, and I've always read the fables, the different stories, because I was kind of enchanted in that fairytale world when I was a little girl, so that was something that I've always enjoyed reading. My parents had books on Chinese fables, so I grew up reading that." She was even familiar with Battle of the Marsh.

She was very impressed with the hand made costumes, "Another thing that really impressed me was how they utilized the sleeves, the scarves attached to their sleeves. I thought they were separate scarves, but they were actually just attached to the garment and the way they flowed... instead of doing a lot of physical dance movements, they utilize the fabric to simulate the movement."

Musician: "Absolutely Delightful"

Wolfgang Justen, a guitarist and professor of literature, attended Shen Yun with his family, all musicians, and their Chinese daughter. He commented, "I think the show is absolutely delightful; it is beautifully done."

Dr. Wolfgang Justen, former dean of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Justen first heard about the show from one of his former students. He had also seen local advertisements and advertisements on the Internet. "We came here because we wanted to first see this live. We knew it only from a DVD. And we wanted to introduce our daughter to Chinese performance tradition. And it is absolutely delightful. I think it's beautiful. In addition to the classical Chinese dance, I enjoyed the [ethnic] representations... wonderful."

One of the things that Mr. Justen especially liked about the show was the live music, "It's very important." Because he came from a family of musicians, he continued, "We are all very appreciative of what you are doing. As I said, it is special in this kind of presentation to have a live orchestra, to have the traditional Chinese music. That's wonderful...it's very well done. Very nice ensemble playing and the mixture of traditional Chinese and modern--it works very well. The music is very Westernized. But the melody, the structure--traditionally Chinese. It does come out, and it's fine. It does not sound necessarily like movie music, but the mixture of traditional, modern instruments, I would say, is well done."

He finished by saying, "I'm thoroughly enjoying the performance."