Right after the Shen Yun Performing Arts introduction event in Da Nang on June 23, People’s Artist and choreographer Le Huan – former President of the Da Nang Dance Artists’ Association – shared more about the beauty of Shen Yun’s art and the genuine human values it brings. He also shared his hope of welcoming Shen Yun to Vietnam, especially to perform in Da Nang, so that professionals in particular and Vietnamese audiences in general can experience the art and learn from it. What’s more, this is not just his own view.
Viet My: As someone who has devoted so much to Vietnamese dance, what are your thoughts after the program about Shen Yun Performing Arts?
People’s Artist Le Huan: With my lifetime of experience building dance, I can clearly see that they are taking a wonderful path, an advanced path rich in national identity. This is the very path we ourselves are thinking about how to create and follow.
After the event, today there was a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations, and the colleagues who went to the event with me yesterday had the chance to sit down together. Like me, they all agreed: honestly, the founding of this company and the way they work made us light up with the spirit of following their example. Clearly they are very national, and being advanced here clearly does not mean importing everything modern. What is modern is that they are very aesthetic in their art, from beautiful music and costumes to the language of dance and the dance works themselves.
Watching the introduction, I noticed that from the dances to the way they build their pieces, there are three kinds of language. First, the classical language; second, the language of classical Chinese dance; and third, the folk dance of 5,000-year-old China. They incorporate every line and form. I think that is exactly where the modern lies. I must repeat this: the deeper you go into a nation’s culture, to its very depths, the more you meet humanity.
I heard that this company began by bringing together Chinese people in New York who were passionate about 5,000 years of Chinese art to work together. In our conversation, we also proposed this: how can state and local leaders see the way they work, so that they will stand behind us artists who are passionate about restoring our nation’s traditional culture.
Through this program, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long – whom I consider one of the Vice Chairmen of Da Nang most knowledgeable about culture and the arts – said: “Mr. Huan, if only I had known earlier, I would have encouraged the city’s leaders to come and see the program and the introduction to understand more.” Yesterday had a big impact on him. He said: “Someday you will come [xem] with me, so that together we can restore our national culture. In the past I was tactful and didn’t dare speak, thinking it would look like the old teaching the young, but after this Shen Yun program, perhaps I have to change. Change by having more influence. As long as we are alive, we must do more to build the culture and arts, first of all of this city”. And building the identity of the city means contributing to that of the country.
Viet My: As a professional, could you share more about Shen Yun’s outstanding unique features so that people who have not yet had the chance to learn about Shen Yun can understand more?
People’s Artist Le Huan: Shen Yun’s dance, as I said with the word “wonderful”, can be said to be built from the very best of the world, the masterpieces distilled by humankind…; classical Chinese dance is also the best in the world today, naturally, because it is the crystallization of 5,000 years of civilization. We need to learn from them.
Second is the way they build their music; I must say they have great respect for music. Yesterday the composers sitting next to me all said: they have organized a symphony orchestra that combines all the best of different peoples. In our performances today, everything is recorded in the studio and then played back. In the old days we performed with live music because recording conditions were very poor back then. Shen Yun has advanced conditions, yet they still value it so much that they use an orchestra to accompany the dance. The way they arrange and lead the music is truly erudite. That is why they are number one in the world.
Third are the costumes and decoration. That is the fine arts. I asked Mr. Ho Dinh Nam Kha, President of the Da Nang Fine Arts Association: “Don’t you find it so beautiful?”. I also asked an old friend, Pham Hong, a winner of the State Prize for Fine Arts: “How do you rate Shen Yun’s fine arts?”, and Mr. Hong exclaimed: “Advanced, yet so national!” As for color, every color is there. The costumes enhance every character. And they treat every pattern and every material of stage design with great care. You cannot fault the colors. It makes the performing arts truly performing arts.
People’s Artist Le Huan and Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long, former Vice Chairman of the Da Nang City People’s Committee and now President of the Da Nang Association for the Protection of Disabled Children and Orphans
Viet My: Speaking about Shen Yun’s art, some experts say it is a wordless language that overcomes every barrier. What do you think of this view?
People’s Artist Le Huan: Actually, we think that they will go further still, much further. Further in the sense that they will captivate the aesthetic sense of the audience. They have never come to Vietnam, but they will draw audiences; to use a folk expression, they will open our eyes. We very much hope for this.
We professional artists see their artistic path, and they open our eyes. I want what is uniquely theirs to be widely promoted so that we can all see it. Unfortunately, yesterday I had invited a Vice Chairman of the city to come to the introductory tea party; he very much wanted to see it, but at the last minute the central government urgently called him to a meeting, and he called to apologize.
For an arts company like this, I have great respect, very great respect.
Viet My: What do you think if Shen Yun comes to perform in Vietnam? What value would this bring to the lives of Vietnamese people?
People’s Artist Le Huan: First of all, as a professional, I very much hope to spread Shen Yun to change the way people think about public taste. Seeing Shen Yun would open many people’s eyes to what true art is, as things are very scattered now. But this scattered state is natural, because we have now opened up and modern things have rushed in, yet that kind of modernity has not brought any results. But this is real modernity! The true modernity of a nation.
The company coming to Vietnam would first of all give the audience an aesthetic education, naturally, through watching. Second, it would let those working professionally in dance, music, painting and theater understand that this is how it must be done, and strive to be like Shen Yun. Of course it is not easy. But that is the artistic path we must take.
Viet My: Some say that Shen Yun’s performances contain spiritual values and human values… What do you think of this?
People’s Artist Le Huan: Yesterday, Colonel and poet Le Anh Dung, Deputy Head of the Da Nang Chapter of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, said: through the Shen Yun program, even though we only saw an introduction, it makes people feel that we should come together. Under the influence of art, beauty brings people salvation, brings them closer and makes them love one another more, with value for peace and tranquility. Then surely these programs, with such beauty and goodness, will win over the very core of human kindness in our world.
For example, in Vietnam many writers, artists and others love the music of Trinh Cong Son; it’s simple, but it goes straight to the heart. In common words, people call it humanity, humaneness. So watching Shen Yun’s program, I must say beauty transcends everything, in every element of music, dance and costume… and beauty will save. In art this is called lofty humanism. People will come together. Why can’t we create such beauty? That is a question that even we – people who have devoted our whole lives to art – must think about: what is the final result?
Yesterday, hearing from international audiences, [sau khi xem Shen Yun chia sẻ] they feel those things. I think that whatever happens, when Shen Yun comes to perform in Vietnam, every audience will feel that too. I truly believe that.
Poet Le Anh Dung – Deputy Head of the Da Nang Chapter of the Vietnam Writers’ Association
Viet My: Speaking of poet Le Anh Dung, after the tea party he said that the core of genuine art is the inner elevation of Shen Yun’s artists, who cultivate not only their skills but also their morality, turning toward goodness and the Way. What does this mean, in your view?
People’s Artist Le Huan: Speaking more broadly about the problems of humanity, Shen Yun can achieve those things. They are so good, so beautiful, that people will be able to feel it. Just one small story: after the tea party, a group of people in literature and the arts felt moved and felt love. What stayed with us was the thought: now that they can do this, how can we do it? It affects people. As for other audiences, I think they will have many different thoughts and feelings. Why is it only now that we get to see something so beautiful? Then they compare it with what we used to watch – after seeing the Shen Yun introduction, there is a comparison in art between what is right and what is not.
As for the artists themselves, if you want to create such art, character and morality are obviously essential. Their training in skill and technique is already wonderful, but I think that when this company performs among ordinary people, through this kind of education they will surely carry with them a very important humanity, which is what allows them to bring this art to the public. As for arrogance… we also need to educate about this. Yesterday, watching the introduction of Shen Yun, with details about Shen Yun’s artists, I think that too is a way of educating people.
Viet My: If you could use just a few words to describe the beauty of Shen Yun, what would they be?
True art! Good, bringing genuine, valuable emotions about art, goodness and beauty to life.
Thank you very much!
See the 2020 performance schedule
June 24, 2019 – Recorded by Viet My Traditional Culture JSC
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