(Clearwisdom.net) City of Seminole Councilman Tom Barnhorn was truly moved after seeing the final performance in St. Petersburg of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Mahaffey Theater at the Progress Energy Center on Friday Jan. 29.

"I'm just excited to be here tonight. The show was wonderful. Truly enjoyed it," he exclaimed, after seeing the New York-based show for the first time.

City of Seminole Councilman Tom Barnhorn speaking in St. Petersburg

He was touched by the performance Fairies of the Clouds, saying: "That was beautiful when all the white just came up--the dancing, the sleeves, the colors, the orchestration of that--was just wonderful."

Councilor Barnhorn appreciated Shen Yun's mission to revive and restore China's classical artistic traditions. "You could see that you have 5,000 years of culture right here, and it was going through the beauty of it-from the mountaintops ... And one of the things that kind of amazed me about the show is ... the colors, the dances ... but at the same time also had beautiful music to go with it.

"I also believe that a lot of the dancing and the-well, the dancing, it just brought out a lot of the culture. And it brought out a warmth inside that was wonderful. I truly enjoyed it.

"The instruments were wonderful. And your baritone singer [Qu Yue singing, A Message to the World], he was fantastic. And the lady [Pi-ju Huang singing Hesitate No Longer] who came out and sang soprano, she was, too."

"I could not understand what the words were, [but] the way they were presented on the screens, I could understand it and I listened and it was beautiful, whether I knew what the words were being sung at the time or not. It was truly a wonderful show and I enjoyed it."

He was moved by the performance depicting the present day persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China. He said: "The family got beat down by the Communist regime. And it showed it, and it showed what was going on there, and it showed that the love of the family was there, but it was being suppressed."

Shen Yun Performing Arts has three companies touring the world. One company was about to perform in Hong Kong to seven sold out shows, however, the shows had to be canceled at the last minute due to the Hong Kong authorities' refusal to issue entry visas to several of the company's key production staff. Councilor Barnhorn felt sad for the people of Hong Kong not to be able to see Shen Yun.

"I think that's terrible, because this is the culture of the people of the country, and to say that they are not allowed to come into their own country to show the art is wrong. It may be safer for them not to go in. But if they're willing to go in, show it, we should have the rights within the world, at least to speak--and speak our minds, speak our beliefs, speak our philosophies. And that's a natural right over here. It should be in China, as well. And I'm sad for the people in Hong Kong who are going to miss this show, because it's wonderful."

In conclusion, he said: "I encourage anybody who hasn't seen this show--please come out and see it. It's a beautiful work of art."

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/28840/