San Francisco January 2012 --- Shen Yun opened in San Francisco this week for their short run at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Shen Yun that is based in New York City combines dance, movement, music and story telling into a series of vignettes. Showing the history from over 5000 years to modern day China which includes the struggle in Comunist China. The show has beautiful costumes that show a rich heritage to their ancesterial roots. Shen Yun shows the story of the repression of Falun Gong in China and around the world. For the first 4 or so vignettes the show focussed on ancient stories and dance, but the 5th one showed as the host put it "The story of modern day China and what they called the choice." Once this vignette started you began to wonder what this piece was and how it had anything to do with the first 4 vignettes, but most would guess that it was trying to show what is happening today in China.
In the second half you saw at least 3-4 more vignettes on the Falun Gong versus Communist China. Though the show had some beautiful dance pieces and the 3 singers where superb (but even their songs where about the repression in China) the show was very chopped up with the vignettes of Modern Day China and then the dance pieces. The show is a small representation of China through the ages though in parts beautifully done was something that you had to think about afterwards.
After the show the foyer was full of the Chinese Broadcast and News getting peoples views but, all of the views recorded where very positive. However, I listened in on a number of attendees who said that they where either confused or felt very uncomfortable by the show. A number of people also said that they felt that the show was not smooth and they lost the audience with the back and forth between anceint and modern day China. Roger Wong of San Francisco said, "I loved the costumes and some of the dance pieces but was very confused by the modern day China pieces which may be because of my lack of understanding of the issue, but overall I enjoyed most of it." And Mary Roper of San Francisco said "I expected a dance and music show and feel that we saw that plus a political/religious message. Though I loved the dance pieces I felt a bit lost." Shen Yun would probably only receive 2 stars from myself and a few of the audience members I spoke too. Having seen the show in Australia a few years ago and loved it I was surprised by the lack of fluidity throughout the show which I had seen before. But some would obviously disagree with me.
Original text from: http://www.examiner.com/review/shen-yun-hits-san-francisco
