(Clearwisdom.net) A costumer with the Seattle Opera described the Shen Yun Performing Arts show she attended on Saturday afternoon at Seattle's Paramount Theatre as "absolutely fabulous."

"So colorful. I love the message--you know, it's like certain things should be allowed to flourish because they promote beauty and peace," said Ms. Wetherill.

Ms. Wetherill, a costumer with the Seattle Opera

New York-based Shen Yun has in recent weeks been taking its lavish production portraying traditional Chinese culture on its Spring Tour 2009 to west coast cities.

Ms. Wetherill said she has always been interested in Chinese culture, and Shen Yun "puts it into a beautiful context."

As a professional costumer, she was amazed by the flowing silk costumes in the show. "I love silks, so that is a beautiful thing, how it moves--very expressive. It moves, it has certain movement that other things don't have. And the colors! I loved the colors."

She said she enjoyed the "beautiful" music and the combination of Western and Chinese instruments in the orchestra, as well as the classical Chinese dance that is the centerpiece of the show. "It is very expressive."

Ms. Wetherill explained that she wanted to attend the show when it came to Seattle in January, but she missed it because she became ill.

"So when I saw they were coming back, I thought, 'I am not going to miss it this time.' Anybody who can come see it, it is well worth it. It is beautiful, really beautiful," she said.

After seeing the world renowned show at the Paramount Theatre Friday evening, Ms. LaCaille, distinguished principal clarinet player with a Northwestern U.S. symphony orchestra, was full of praise for Shen Yun's performance. "My overall impression is, simply amazing! The costumes are sumptuous, the dancers are amazing, the music is elaborate," she said. "It was just so delightful to see it all in ravishing color and the stage presence of all the dancers."

Ms. LaCaille, an internationally renowned principal clarinetist, attends Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Paramount Theatre

Ms. LaCaille has performed for a number of symphony orchestras in different regions around the world, and toured with prominent Broadway shows throughout Europe.

Commending Shen Yun's live orchestra, Ms. LaCaille said, "Being a clarinet player myself, I understand that the sonorities blended with the strings, and the overall general appearance of everything really has a lot of a major impact on the audience appeal."

"They offer a melding and a blending of the cultures with the blending of the different instruments."

The Shen Yun Orchestra, which features renowned performers and composers from around the world, consists of classical Western instruments as its foundation, complemented with traditional Chinese instruments. "I think the dynamics were very good and they blended well with the choreography on stage."

Ms. LaCaille was impressed by the talent of the vocalists and said she learned a lot about ancient Chinese culture after watching the show. "I never knew about the Mongolian history, and just the different ways the people dance and the costumes and everything, that was really fabulous," she said.

"I thought it was brilliant," said showgoer Mr. Bennick. He was describing Shen Yun Performing Arts Spring Tour 2009 which opened at Seattle's Paramount Theater on Friday evening. Mr. Bennick is a professional speaker as well as a singer in a number of different bands.

He was profoundly moved by Shen Yun. "Every moment of the show signifies something ... so it's a feast for the eyes. You're not just watching singing and dancing," he said.

As a singer, he liked the drumming pieces and tenor Tian Ge's "very powerful" rendition of "Not Looking Back."

"To see someone referencing 'the Party' or the 'oppression' or very specific references to the fact that outside of this context--if this production was produced, say, in China, we would be having a very different conversation afterwards, largely with a fear for what the repercussions would be for the artists themselves and maybe even us, as the audience."

Referring to the performances which touch upon the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China, Mr. Bennick said that both he and a friend who also attended the show thought using the performing arts to depict human rights abuses was 'effective.' "The friend that I brought with me tonight is actually a professor of theatre and theatre history that I studied under at Cornish College of the Arts. His response and mine both were pretty striking to the show. When the second intermission was called he turned to me and said, 'These people are certainly fighting the devil tonight,' meaning that in the face of oppression this [is] a way to fight that oppression most effectively."

The Shen Yun orchestra, which consists of a blend of Chinese and western instruments and plays only original compositions, also impressed Mr. Bennick. "I would hope that Westerners and Easterners alike could bond together with the message of the show and specifically the music, which strikes everybody regardless of language. So to see Western and Eastern instruments being used together was really effective in doing exactly that--bonding cultures geographically, globally, together in one show. It's pretty brilliant."

"I thought it was totally enlightening, it was brilliant," he concluded.

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/17215/

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