By Jack Phillips, Epoch Times Staff, Jan 31, 2010-

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.— On a cold Sunday, people came to theater at Times-Union Center on Water Street. The theater is right on the water, in view of a huge bridge.

Mr. Erskine, the Director of the Art League of Jacksonville was at the performance.

He said the performance was “exhilarating” and “exceptional,” add that Shen Yun “was visually exciting and stunning, and was very good.”

Mr. Erskine has experience as a sculptor and as a painter. “The beauty of the dance and the costumes and the way they told the stories was totally incredible,” he said. “The show is an amazing spectacle—it really was.”

One element in the show that impresses many people is the digitally-imposed visual backdrop, which is hand-crafted to go along with the each piece in unison with the dancers. Mr. Erskine added that the show is “visually stunning.”

“The way they incorporated the background was just incredible,” he added. “The stories all got told whether you understood the language or whether you didn’t understand the language, which is a wonderful thing.”

Shen Yun revives the age-old Chinese culture that was lost under the current communist regime, says their website. “It brought culture and understanding of the past and how we need to preserve that and bring that into the future,” said Mr. Erskine. “So, it was really good. Very impressive.”

Classical Chinese dance is the centerpiece in Shen Yun. Each performer goes through rigorous training in order to master each movement and form. “The way they danced [and] used the costumes to show feeling and emotion, and the way the colors vividly took over the stage was very impressive,” said Mr. Erskine.

The flow of the performers are “something that as a painter and an artist you hope you can capture in your paintings and in your art,” he said. “That’s an art of dance and that’s why dance is such a beautiful and unreproducible art. It just has to live and thrive on its own.”….. (more from The Epochtimes)

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