LOUISVILLE, Kentucky—A warm misty Spring evening set the mood for Shen Yun Performing Arts' one-off ancient Chinese traditional cultural show in Louisville.

Held at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Whitney Hall, on Sunday March 7, the performance was hailed as “absolutely beautiful” by audience member Barbara Sexton Smith.

She is the executive vice-president for The Fund for the Arts, the oldest, most successful united art fund in America.

“I thought this evening's presentation by Shen Yun was stunning. The music coming out of the orchestra pit was beautiful, you could tell the conductor inspired every musician to give his or her best. All of their personalities came through,” she said.

Story-based dance is an integral part of the New York-based Shen Yun. Two dances, Nothing Can Block the Divine Path and Astounding Conviction highlighted the persecution in China of the spiritual practice, Falun Gong.

“The message I took from the performance was that I was born and reared in a fabulous country in the entire world; freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of belief,” Ms. Sexton Smith emphasized.

Artistically speaking, she thought “the artistic style was wonderful.

“The choreography was absolutely beautiful, the costumes were stunning and flowed with each of the performers in a way that you could tell that they were using their bodies to express what they were feeling, and it was absolutely beautiful.”

She said the vibrancy of the colors were “very beautiful and exhibited a feeling of freedom coming from a people, that I believe, have been repressed with their views.”

She was amazed by the orchestral fusion of Western and ancient Chinese music, unique to Shen Yun.

“The Western instruments combined with the Eastern were beautiful,” she said, recalling when the Louisville Orchestra had a guest artist that played the pipa. The ancient Chinese instrument can be described as the juxtaposition to the violin.

One other time, a Chinese musician brought her pipa to a private audience and the pair talked about the instrument. “So, to have it here this evening for more than 2,000 people to experience, was absolutely wonderful.”

Ms. Sexton Smith also loved the graphic nature of the 3-D animated backdrop scenes.

“The technology that it takes to put that on the screen was beautiful. And the very opening act, the chariot came through. I thought that the chariot was going to come right down into the audience,” she said. “My husband thought that the landscapes were real … It added a lot to the performance.”

However, in summing up the entire evening’s show, Mrs. Sexton Smith couldn’t shake the heart-wrenching scenes depicting the persecution of Falun Gong.

“That was very moving. I'll think about that for a long time,” she said.

Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is one of three companies based in New York currently on its 2010 World Tour of 400 shows in more than 100 cities. It's next appearance will be in Indianapolis on March 13-14.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

Original article: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/31018/