(Clearwisdom.net) CLEVELAND, Ohio--"When the curtain went up, the audience had this moment of 'IN-C-REDIBLE,'" said Arooj Ashraf, correspondent for La Prensa Newspaper--a Hispanic weekly based in Toledo.
She was talking about the arrival of Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday, May 29, and wanted to thank her colleague for bringing her along. "I shout out to my editor, Rico Neller, for bringing us here. He spoke really highly of it and he thought we would really come and love to see the performance."
Ms. Ashraf felt deeply moved by the performances.
"I felt a lot of energy. And especially the persecution drama, with the little girl and the mother being separated, and the whole history of persecution in China that's going on, I had a difficult time holding back tears, because it was such a short piece that was so intense. You know, just five dancers or six dancers in the whole performance, but they brought so much emotion and just so much pain into that performance that it was difficult to sit there and not be moved by it."
The scene she was talking about was depicted through the contemporary story titled Nothing Can Block the Divine Path.
According to the program, the mother and daughter, who perform Falun Dafa exercises in a park, are discovered by police. The police carry out orders to arrest and break the will of anyone who follows this peaceful spiritual discipline. This tragedy does not go unnoticed, however, as the heavens are watching.
"There are a lot of underlying messages in the performance," said Ms. Ashraf. "Part of it was, that we all need harmony and peace, and we all need to believe in a higher power."
Ms. Ashraf was not just attending the show for enjoyment, however, and said that La Prensa had come to Shen Yun for two reasons.
He explained that they are "keeping an eye on the artistic part of the dance and the music and the singing, and I think the other part of it would be just the history of what Falun Gong is and why it is important, and just why they are being persecuted."
Speaking of the digital backdrops, Ms. Ashraf said, "I really like how they had the angels ... how they interacted and brought them into the stage. That was really unique. I have never seen that before, so it was interesting to see that interaction into the digital media and mix with the ethnic cultural folk [dances]."
Ms. Ashraf wished Shen Yun could stay for at least another six months.
A Very Important Message
Another journalist from La Prensa, Ingrid Rivera, attended the show. Ms. Rivera had researched the show on the Internet before coming to see it and said it was a lot better than she could ever have imagined, adding, "It was very, very enjoyable. I definitely enjoyed it. I mean the costumes, the music, the dancing--it was amazing, to be honest with you."
She continued with reference to the current situation in China: "I also liked the important message that was being delivered about how these human rights violations are happening in China still today. How they are not able to practice their religion, they are not able to practice their culture. I think that's a shame and when they stand up against it, they end up thrown in jail or actually assaulted. It is a very important message that is being sent in such a beautiful way to inform people and I think that it is great that they are doing that."
Repeating how much she liked the music, Ms. Rivera enthused, "Again, I love how the music fits so perfectly with the message. When it was a deep sad spiritual message, the music kind of slowed down. Also when there was an intense moment - in the battles that were going on--you could hear the drums. It fit perfectly."
Ms. Rivera shared some further thoughts on the message portrayed by the show, concluding, "Well, I think that the message they are delivering is very important. I was even talking to some people that did not know what was going on still in China which I'm surprised, because I have known about this but to see it portrayed in a play like this - it really drives it home. If their goal was to inform people about what is going on in China, they definitely did it tonight, they definitely did!"
Sources:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/36498/
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/36524/