It’s no secret that many of Shen Yun Performing Arts’ earliest dancers were alumni of China’s Beijing Dance Academy. Yet a decade after New York-based Shen Yun’s inception, its performances started to look worlds apart from that of any Chinese dance company. “Think about it, Beijing [Dance Academy] has its pick of the best dancers…
A Musical Visitation to the Zenith of Song: 6 Composers
Thirteen hundred years have passed since the birth of Western Europe’s great musical tradition. Gregorian chant, first heard in the eighth century, is mother to a miraculous offspring including motets, cantatas, sonatas, operas, concertos, and symphonies, but perhaps most miraculous, the most unlikely of all her children, is the 19th-century German “Lied,” translated literally, “song.”…
Shen Yun: Fighting Persecution Through Art
The curtain opens, and principal dancer Steven Wang leaps out, unfurling a banner in his hands. On it, five characters are written. They read: Falun Dafa is good. For daring to utter these few simple words, tens of millions in China, including Wang’s family, face severe persecution by China’s communist regime. Wang, a classical Chinese dancer,…
American Treasures: Vaudeville, Family Friendly Entertainment
What do Houdini, Bob Hope, and Don the Talking Dog have in common? They all started out in vaudeville. What was vaudeville? The word is French for a kind of comic song, but in North America it came to mean theatrical presentations of unrelated acts—singers, comics, dancers, magicians—and it dominated our popular culture for half…
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bagpipes
Perhaps, like me, you have been fascinated, even thrilled, when a bagpiper showed up in a kilt at a wedding or funeral you attended. Or perhaps you have heard the raucously festive sound of row upon row of bagpipers in a parade, accompanied by snare, tenor, and bass drums. That ensemble is properly called a…
Is Your Piano in Tune? The Noble Craft of Piano Tuning
A little more than a generation ago, in the days of classic TV, comic books, and ping-pong tables, it was still fairly common for a kid’s weekly regimen to include a piano lesson with a private teacher. That required their homes to have a piano. Inexpensive electronic keyboards did not find their way into toy…
Theater Review: ‘A Recipe for Disaster’
CHICAGO—For regular theatergoers, Windy City Playhouse’s aptly named “A Recipe for Disaster” may not be what they’re accustomed to. The production lacks the stage and auditorium of a typical theater. Instead it’s a live immersive experience that takes place in Petterino’s banquet space in downtown Chicago. It’s a logical location for a presentation that takes…
American Treasures: Johnny Mercer, an All-American Genius
His words inhabit the psyche like a soundtrack of the American century, from the autumn leaves falling past my window to the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe. Johnny Mercer (1909–1976) was America’s lyricist, giving voice to the loves, ambitions, hopes, dreams, and whimsies of his country’s people for four decades. A slim sampling of…
Artist Profile: Beauty Through Tradition: Shen Yun
Evangeline Zhu was at Lincoln Center in New York, hours away from stepping on stage, when she got the news: The show would not go on. In the 14 years Shen Yun Performing Arts had been performing, seldom had there been a canceled show—though the Chinese Communist Party has certainly tried to have Shen Yun…
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Shen Yun Is ‘A Call to Come Back to the Divine Influence,’ Says Lt. Col. Lohmeier
BOISE, Idaho.—Public speaker and author Matthew Lohmeier was full of praise for all the “divine” aspects in Shen Yun after seeing the New York-based company’s performance on Nov. 2. “[The performance is] a call to come back to the divine influence,” Mr. Lohmeier said. “It’s a message, that despite the fact that it originates with…