ATLANTA—Laurian Cuffy, founder and CEO of Cultural Vibe and Media, attended Shen Yun’s matinee performance at the Atlanta Symphony Hall on Dec. 24. After years of wanting to see Shen Yun, he finally made it this year, thanks to a little nudge from his family.
Not only was Mr. Cuffy mesmerized by the beauty of the performance, but he also deeply appreciated that Shen Yun’s message aligned with his company’s mission to explore how diverse cultural influences and traditions can inspire positive social change.
“I love the performance. It was excellent. Looking at how the spirituality of the dance and how it moves us to bring about change was what really [moved me,]” he said.
“I’m a softy for looking at diving down deep into traditions. There was one [program] where they looked at dance in the local communities. We have big traditions and big messages nationally, but when you go down to the small communities, and you see how they interact with dance and music—how they communicate, that resonated with me.”
The New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in 2006 by elite Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
For 5,000 years, China’s civilization flourished under the shared belief that the divine will bless those who uphold traditional moral values. Tragically, within just a few decades of the CCP’s violent takeover, these beliefs were erased and replaced with atheism.
Mr. Cuffy thought Shen Yun’s performance was “very, very insightful.”
“We looked at 5,000 years of influence and how the dance and the backstory of the traditions impacted [Chinese society] moving up all the way to the pre-communist years. It’s interesting that [Shen Yun] revamped the [show] annually because I’m sure there’s more and more different aspects of it that they bring in over the years,” he added.
Shen Yun’s performance features a series of short pieces that take audiences on a journey through China’s dynasties and across its diverse regions. Through classical Chinese, folk, and ethnic dances, Shen Yun brings to the world’s stage the very best and most beautiful aspects of China’s divinely inspired culture.
The company produces new dances and musical compositions every year.
Mr. Cuffy, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, is very familiar with the power of faith, as many spiritual practices are woven into the fabric of his culture. He loved Shen Yun’s emphasis on moral values and following the divine.
“It all boils down to connecting with your humanity. I was in the military for 34 years, and when you’ve been to war and you see people killed, you ask yourself, ‘We do all of this for what?’ Humanity is extremely important,” he reflected.
“We get to that point of trying to be good people through a whole process of discipline—of connecting with our inner peace, our inner humanity, and divinity. [Shen Yun] brought that to me when I listened to it. It comes about through various art forms. When you see something visually—all the color, the beauty, the movements—all of that came together to touch your inner soul and to inform your humanity.”
By Frank Xie and Jennifer Tseng
