OGDEN, Utah—Mayor Russ Wall was in attendance for the opening night of Shen Yun Performing Arts show at the Peery’s Egyptian Theater on March 16.

As the mayor of the City of Taylorsville, Utah, Mayor Wall helps to lead one of Utah’s newest cities, a city of just over 60,000 people, which is located in Salt Lake Valley. This was Mr. Wall’s first introduction to classical Chinese dance, and he said “It's beautiful, I love it. I haven't seen anything like it before—first time.”

Mr. Wall said he greatly enjoyed the beauty and energy of Shen Yun, and said he found all the dance performances enjoyable and "beautiful".  

"They've all impressed me; they're all very beautiful and they're very talented. It's a great show.”

As for the dancers in Shen Yun, Mayor Wall said “They're strong, but they're graceful, too—it’s beautiful.”

Commenting on the music played by Shen Yun's live orchestra, the mayor said that "the music was great" and that the musicians were "very talented." He mused over what it might feel like to make such music: “I wish I had that kind of musical talent…I just get to watch!”

He found the blend of Chinese and Western instruments in the orchestra to be “beautiful” and said “they did a very good job” with the orchestration, arranging instruments from East and West together.

Mayor Wall took some time to mention a performance that especially stirred some feelings for him, in reflecting on “Nothing Can Block the Divine Path”, in which, according to the program notes, a mother and daughter who practice Falun Dafa are “brutalized for standing by their faith” in contemporary China ruled by the Chinese communist regime.

The mayor said, “It's very sad. It makes me angry to know that that's still happening.” He also said “it's good to make people aware,” and continued, “I hate any time when people are persecuted for anything.” As the choreography of this piece unfolds, the tragedy does not go unnoticed by the heavens, and as for the ultimate outcome of the scene depicted in “Nothing Can Block the Divine Path,” where good is rewarded with good, Mayor Wall said, “that was beautiful, I believe that.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts will present its final show at Perry's Egyptian Theater in Ogden on March 18.

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/31618/