  
Shen Yun, mixing art and politics, comes to Sangamon Auditorium Five thousand years of Chinese performing arts and culture will take the stage Feb. 9 at Sangamon Auditorium in a multimillion-dollar touring production called Shen Yun (“divine character”) that usually plays in much larger venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center. “It’s unusual for Shen Yun to play in a community of this size,” says Joel Chipkar, a consultant for the Mid-USA Flaun Dafa Association that presents the show, along with Sound of Hope Radio, which is based in New York and beams shortwave broadcasts into mainland China. “Supporters from the Springfield area felt strongly that the show should be presented here to an audience that would appreciate the beauty and artistry of Chinese culture.” Staged by three different touring companies that perform in the U.S. and Europe, Shen Yun’s performances have been seen by about a million people over the past four years. Each showcases as many as 60 dancers, singers and musicians. Chipkar says the show is based on thousands of years of Chinese culture and history played out in 20 different set pieces, each narrated in English and Chinese. Fireworks, drums and projected backdrops are part of the spectacle, with richly costumed performers and a live orchestra presenting classical Chinese, ethnic and folk stories of China’s Dai, Mongolian and other minorities. Various religious and philosophical traditions — Buddhism and Daoism among them — are interpreted in the music and dance. “China has such a long history,” he says. “Shen Yun is an explosion of color and hightech production based on centuries of cultur- continued on page 12 See also
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