An Extraordinary Evening at the Kennedy Center

Last Wednesday evening my husband Tim and I had plans to meet friends from Tucson at the Kennedy Center.  Debbie was chaperoning her daughters, Kelsey and Kaelin, as they participated in a spring break tour of Washington, D.C. with their Colorado Springs Youth Symphony group.  When Debbie's husband retired from the FBI a few years ago, they left Tucson to move their family to the Springs area.  We had not seen them since their departure.

The best we could hope for was a glimpse of our friends when their group attended two performances at the Kennedy Center.  We planned to join them for the free performance at Millennium Stage, but we'd leave when their group entered the center's Opera House for that evening's performance of the Shen Yun Performing Arts.

I'm always looking for ways to drag Tim to any cultural event beyond the realm of sports contests.  This was the perfect opportunity!  The free price of the 6 p.m. concert by ensembles from the Kennedy Center House Orchestra coupled with the chance to touch base with old friends gained Tim's compliance.  He met me there from work and both of us waited in anticipation for the arrival of the Colorado Springs symphony group. 

When the 49 students arrived, clad in their black Colorado Springs Youth Symphony black polo shirts, they created quite a stir as they took the only seats still available on the steps leading up to the Eisenhower Theatre, just adjacent to Millennium Stage.  Tim and I quickly recognized Debbie, but the last time we'd seen Kelsey and Kaelin, they had been in primary school.  Debbie had to point both girls out to us.  After chatting with Debbie and the girls during the intermission and again at the conclusion of the orchestra ensemble performance, we reluctantly bid them good-bye so they could head to their seats in the Opera House.

We were halfway out the door when Debbie caught up with us to say that the tour guide had two extra tickets to the Shen Yun performance.  Did we want to stay and join them?  Of course, we did!  Quickly buying two candy bars from the lobby's refreshment counter as our substitute for dinner, we made our way up to the tour group's seats in the very top tier of the Kennedy Center's Opera House.

There we sat enthralled for the next two hours as we watched traditional Chinese dancers bring ancient legends to life, using music and folk dances full of graceful movements, agile leaps and acrobatic flips.  Two bilingual emcees introduced each dance by explaining the symbolism we would soon see.  A digital movie projected on the stage backdrop portrayed mythical creatures growing from tiny pinpoints in the distance to become three-dimensional human dancers, who surfaced from entrances underneath the stage directly in front of the backdrop to participate in the numerous vignettes performed. 



After more than 60 years of communist rule in China and the Cultural Revolution that followed, China's 5,000-year culture was all but wiped out.  According to the Shen Yun Performing Arts' website, this New-York based company, which is currently banned from performing in China, was formed by a group of expatriate Chinese artists who wanted to restore and revive traditional Chinese culture. 

The dances we were privileged to watch on this serendipitious night were a study in grace, wisdom and the virtues condensed from the five millennia of Chinese civilization. 

Thank you, Debbie, Kelsey and Kaelin, for an extraordinary evening!