Soul Touching a Soul: Shen Yun Audience

On Saturday night, Engineering Manager Mark Davey from New York discovered the answers to a childhood longing.

[Mark Davey, Engineering Manager]:
“When I was a child, I wanted to go to China and I couldn't understand why. I just felt a kinship, a fondness for the people. And, now when I watch this production, I understand why. Because in the opening scene it felt soulful, it felt like their souls were touching mine and that's a rare thing to find in a production—a soul touching a soul.”

Mr Davey had just seen the first half of Shen Yun Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Shen Yun is a New York based classical Chinese dance company with a mission to revive China’s 5,000 years of culture.

According to materials on the company’s website, traditional Chinese culture emphasized the inner purity of an artist. Mr Davey says he experienced this from Shen Yun’s performers.

[Mark Davey, Engineering Manager]:
“I felt communication taking place on a different level that I had never felt before just coming from dance and I think it's from the purity that was coming from the performers. There's goodness, there's purity there that resonates with other people who feel the same way.”

“Well inside of all of us I feel that we all have a spirit and I feel that their spirits are touching my spirit on a level that I can't quite understand.”

He says he has experienced something special in Shen Yun, and feels drawn to go back.

[Mark Davey, Engineering Manager]:
“It transcends script, music, practice and talent. It's like some kind of a message, some kind of message of goodness. It makes me walk away, here I am at just intermission, and I feel uplifted. I feel like I want to go back for more, I feel like I'm missing something, like their calling me to go back and I feel like I want to go back. So, it's a very special experience.”

Mr Davey expressed his gratitude to Shen Yun's artists.

[Mark Davey, Engineering Manager]
“I would just like to say that I appreciate what the performers are doing, I appreciate their hard work. It must take a lot of effort to pull that off and it takes a unique performer to communicate to that level. And hat's off to all of them. Congratulations!”

NTD News, New York.