Marthe Villalonga, an 87-year-old French actress, best known for her roles in popular French TV show “Maguy,” and the movie “We Will All Go to Heaven or An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive” watched Shen Yun Performing Arts in Paris on Jan. 17.
“It’s sumptuous, it’s beautiful,” said Mrs. Villalonga. “The costumes, the ensemble, the music … we’re delighted. Really.”
Mrs. Villalonga has spent over half of her life since 1958 in theatre and the TV industry. When it comes to acting and stage performance, she knows a thing or two about presentation and professionalism.
“I really like the colors, I really like them, all this mixed together like that,” said Mrs. Villalonga. “So, I’m actually attracted to it. Oh yes, I automatically find that we, we are, we go higher! Here, we go, we go up, we go to heaven, we find the pretty things.”
According to its website, the company follows in the footsteps of ancient cultures and looks to the divine for inspiration. Pascale Pouzadoux, an actress and director, saw Shen Yun on the same day and said she enjoyed watching China’s cultural legacy and ancient beliefs unfold on the stage.
“I think it’s wonderful, I think it makes us dream, I think it allows us to know a culture that we know more or less but not enough, and it’s a way to want to discover China differently, because of its wonderful and ancient side,” said Pouzadoux. “The show itself I find it very professional, I find that the dancers are extremely dynamic, beautiful, that they really make you want to follow the story, and I find that the sets are beautiful too, the colors the costumes, and I think it’s very well explained by the female dancer who explains the story to us, and that we follow the process well, and that there’s both humor and beauty, I think it’s perfect to see it in Paris in winter, and that everyone should go see them, in the whole world.”
“As the young woman explained to us that it was indeed inspired by the divine, I followed his indication when I saw the dancers, and I found especially that it was very free and very rich, as if they were inspired by something very old that they were trying to bring us a kind of serenity, a quietude, like a meditation, on life, on the landscape, on existence, and especially the centuries that are described through costumes, personalities, sets, yes I found that there was something quite wonderful.”
NTD News, Paris, France
