HOUSTON—Shen Yun Performing Arts, the New York-based premiere Chinese dance and music company, returned to Houston to stage three shows in Brown Theater at the Wortham Center on July 2 and 3.

Coming to see the show on Friday night was Sandra Massie-Hines, honorary mayor of Sunnyside and a civil rights leader.

“Shen Yun gave an awesome, awesome performance,” Ms. Massie-Hines said.

“This was a great and exciting and awesome cultural arts event.”

Ms. Massie-Hines is the executive director of Junior Achievers, a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing the lives of the disadvantaged. She also has created and implemented a number of community programs, including Crime and Alcohol Prevention and Intervention, Community Drug Program, Health and Job Fairs, and Violence Prevention, to name a few. She is also a singer herself and helps promote other artists in music and the performing arts.

Being occupied with activities on various fronts, Ms. Massie-Hines does not normally find an opportunity to attend different events, so she was particularly happy that she was able to watch Shen Yun.

“Today’s performing arts really was excellent. Whoever the choreographer was, everything was excellent. The costumes were very strikingly unique. The whole event, the entire show with Shen Yun, was just really awesome. It’s a great sight to see, and I would advise anyone that’s not been to see this performance, it is excellent,” she said.

“Beautiful dance, very good story lines, I really enjoy it.”

Ms. Massie-Hines said the dancers showed great enthusiasm during the performance and smiled continuously.

“They captured your attention the whole performance. Excellent, beautiful, beautiful.”

Besides enjoying the dances and the orchestra, she was also impressed by the animated digital backdrops used throughout the show.

“I really didn’t think they could create the art that appears [as if] people were leaving offstage and going into the sky—and such colors. It was just beautiful.”

Shen Yun was a “great, great cultural arts exchange” and a “historic event,” Ms. Massie-Hines said.

With reporting by Catherine Yang

Shen Yun will perform two shows tomorrow, July 3, at 2.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. at Houston’s Wortham Center before leaving to present shows in Los Angeles from July 8 to 11. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts

Original article: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/38482/