Epoch Times Staff

Feb 6, 2010

Mr. Story, a building contractor who attended with his wife. (Suman Srinivasan/The Epoch Times)

WORCESTER, Mass.--On the anniversary of the Blizzard of '78 and with a massive snowstorm raging at New England's back door, to the south, it was a fine dry day in Worcester on the weekend of Shen Yun's arrival.

In the heart of this central Massachusetts city, the curtain rose at the famed Hanover Theatre on Saturday night, Feb. 6, as the audience applauded for New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts, the world's premier classical Chinese dance and music company. This is the first year that Shen Yun is visiting Worcester on its world tour.

"It's really neat. It's cool. It was really nice," said Mr. Story, a building contractor who attended with his wife, who is a medical assistant. They were shopping at Christmas time in a local area mall and bought two tickets. "So this is our Christmas present," said Mr. Story.

He described the show as, "Very colorful, entertaining, and interesting that the actors come from New York City and they're keeping their ethnic culture alive."

"Beautiful costumes," said Mrs. Story.

"The live orchestra is really cool, really nice. And it's kind of neat how they incorporate the film backdrop with the dancing. ... But the dancing is spectacular. We go to plays in Hartford a lot and this is top-quality dancing--Beautiful. Excellent costumes," said Mr. Story and his wife agreed: "Well, that says it all," she said.

Mr. and Mrs. Rowan also attended opening night with their three children. (Suman Srinivasan/The Epoch Times)

Mr. and Mrs. Rowan also attended opening night with their three children who are in college. Mr. Rowan is an engineer and Mrs. Rowan is retired. She first heard about the show when someone showed her a pamphlet at a local supermarket. "When I saw inside it, I wanted to come. So I talked everybody into coming--it's my birthday," she said.

"I really enjoyed the show! The dancing and the music were really nice. The costumes were gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. The colors were great. And I liked the writing in the background, so that we understood what was going on. I thought that was great," Mrs. Rowan said.

On Sunday, Shen Yun will perform at 2 p.m. at the Hanover Theater. Over the next week, the dance and music company will be putting on shows in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Springfield, Illinois. On Valentine's Day weekend, the company will be on stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

With reporting by Suman Srinivasan

Source http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/29206/