Shen Yun's All-New 2023 Season: Behind the Scenes | 3 Musketeers

We're Shinyoon Dancers, also known as the Three Musketeers. And we're preparing to perform the first show of the 2023 season. So right now, we're at Atlanta Symphony Hall. It is our first performance of the season. And it starts tomorrow. Today we're setting up, and we'll take you through our day. Let's go. Let's go. So right behind us, as you can see, everyone is very busy setting up the stage for our performance tomorrow. But right now we also have work to do. We're going to go get some food and then also have a warm-up class. Oh, I love tour food. Let's go, let's go. Let's go, let's go. We just had our lunch and it was so good. And I realized how good food on tour is. And one of the best things about tour is actually just traveling around to different cities, different countries, and trying out different cuisine, different places. You don't get many opportunities like that, except for when you're on tour. This is my favorite thing about tour. The food. What do you think, Jisung? Jisung agrees. Can you see the breath? Ew, it's disgusting, Sam. All right, so right now it's the coldest that it's ever been here, right, in the city? It's arctic blast. Cyclone bomb arctic blast is what it's called. It sounds like some kind of attack. That's one of the things I'm dreading about tour, the different weather, the freezing weather conditions. You can go from really hot to really cold, like we're in right now. Let's go back in, it's really cold. Okay, let's go back inside. Let's go. Okay, so we just finished eating. Now we're about to have class. My favorite part of the day. And that gets me to what I don't like on tour. You don't have a classroom or a studio to do bar. You just have the lobby, like we're in right now. And it's kind of difficult to really stretch out and do everything out, but you have to make do with what you have. Lobby looks really nice. It's Christmas, too. We just walked the stage, and then we had a dress rehearsal. No, a tech rehearsal. And then after the tech rehearsal, we got all our stuff ready. And now it's, what time is it? Oh my gosh, it's 9 o'clock. Tomorrow is... And we have an afternoon show tomorrow. That's really weird. I've never had an afternoon show for my first show of the year. Have you had it before? No. I don't know. I don't remember. It's been 15 years, but I can't remember. We've been working hard this half year to bring you guys the best. And so you guys will be in for a surprise when you come see the show this year. It's going to be amazing. That's what I have to say for people who want to see the show this year. We have our first show today. Come on, let's go. So I suspect that I'm going to be super nervous and have no time to film. So we're just going to give you some snippets of today's show, and we'll tell you about it afterwards, okay? Let's go! It's cold! So one of my favorite parts about touring is that we go to a new theater every single time, and it feels really fresh. And look at this theater. It looks amazing. And just having that freshness makes you want to perform more. So today is actually Christmas Eve. We just finished class. We're going to go back. We're going to get ready. We're going to do makeup and prepare for the show. We just put on makeup, and I was going to vlog a little bit more, but there's no time today. It's the afternoon show, so we're going to have to talk to you guys later, okay? So fast-paced. Let's check out what Will's doing. How's it going, man? It's very good. You're bothering me preparing for the show right now. What? How can I bother you, man? The audience wants to know. How do you feel? One thing that you are dreading about touring is doing makeup. Is it true or not? That's very, very true. I dislike makeup a lot. That's actually a very good point. Makeup before a show. After a meal, you feel sleepy, so you've got to get some sleep in. So this is my three-chair setup. With these three chairs, you can conquer the world. Anywhere you go, you can take a nice nap. A nap is important, though. Power nap. I'll see you guys after the nap. This theater has never had this cold in 40 years. So I think the heating system is not enough to heat us. This is what it's come to. To wear gloves while warming up. Okay. So we're just about to have the show. Everyone is so into warming up that we didn't even have time to vlog. But as you can see, there's a lot of people jumping around. Jisung, Jisung. Stop flying and tell me something. How are you feeling for this show? First show of this season. I'm very excited. You're very excited? Are you nervous at all? Not really. I'm trying to stay calm. Because as long as I stay calm, nothing will happen. The weird thing is this is an afternoon show. It's kind of weird, right? It's okay. Alright, Jisung is ready. Jisung is ready, so I have to be ready. But out of all seriousness, it's pretty intense. Everyone is really excited but nervous. So we're going to focus on the show and we'll talk to you afterwards, okay? Good luck. Hi, Jisung is eating shrimp and lobster. He's eating shrimp and lobsters. What's that? Lobster and king crab. Oh my goodness. That was crazy. We just finished our first show. Is that one third of the type of food? But it's Christmas Eve right now. That's true. It's perfect for Christmas Eve. We wish you a Merry Christmas. The food's crazy. Lobster, crab, steak. We already got it. It looks so good. Enjoy your food, Sam. Merry Christmas. He's just saying Merry Christmas with a happy birthday mouth. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas, dear Sam Pooh. Today's performance was actually pretty difficult. It's our first show of the season for all 8 companies. And what happened is, it's a bomb cyclone right now. It's so cold. It is so cold. On stage, it's really cold. Because we couldn't turn on the heater for some reason. It's never been this cold in Atlanta. So the heater's not really working. And we're kind of freezing on stage. But let me tell you, once we started the performance, the audience was so enthusiastic. And their applause was so... They were cheering and everything. And we were warmed up. It warmed our hearts. I felt the passion. Actually, I saw a lady for the opening. I saw a lady wiping her tears. That immediately got into me. I was like, okay. That was an amazing first show of the season. Great way to start off. And let us go get some amazing food. Yeah, so if you didn't buy the ticket yet, don't miss the chance. I'm pretty sure all the tickets in this city is all sold out already. We're adding more shows here because ticket sales are very good. So don't miss our show, okay? Don't miss the shows. Don't. My favorite part about tour is you finally be able to meet with your audience. Because it cannot be called performance if there's no audience. The artists are really engaged in where they are and well-practiced. It is a very impressive show. So, okay, Jisung. We just finished the show in Atlanta. And there's one audience member, a gentleman called Pierre Hardy. He really enjoyed the performance, but especially he liked your dance piece. The dance that you choreographed. And he said it taught him a lot about... Because he knew about persecution of Falun Dafa before, but it taught him about organ harvesting. And he actually purchased Drupada, which is the main text of Falun Gong, to find out more after the show. How do you feel about that? Because you basically changed him a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I feel very grateful because that is the reason why I made the dance. And then, yeah, the first time, I actually had the same reaction as he had when I heard about the persecution. I knew about the persecution, but when I heard about the organ harvesting, it was almost like kind of hard to believe, you know? It was like how it actually can happen. And I tried to search some more stuff about it, and I saw a lot of evidence and articles. And mainly my teacher told me about his experience. And then it kind of also inspired me. Because your teacher was persecuted in China. Yeah, persecuted in China. And then he kind of went through that. He kind of saw and then experienced a doctor kind of threading in for the organ harvesting. I heard about this story, too. So one of Jisung's teachers, actually, he was tested to have his organ harvested actually in prison. And that's his personal experience from him. And that also inspired you, right? It's a little bit heavy, but I think it's something that people should know. It is actually still going on nowadays. So yeah, I hope if you didn't know about it, or if you're very curious about it, you can search on your own, or you can come to watch the show. Watch the show. Watch the show. It's the fastest way. Okay, so we just got back to the hotel. And what I really want to say to the audience is I think 2022 has been pretty tough for a lot of people because of COVID, right? It's just very uncertain. And for us as well, preparing for the performance and even performing last year was really difficult because a lot of times our shows would get canceled. And there was like a lot of regulations that we're following as well. But the thing is, preparing for this year's performance, it was also extremely tight. Because last year's performance went longer than usual. And this year we were working overtime to get this show out because every year we have a new show, as you know. And now that we finished our first show, it feels like it's all worth it. The audience loved the performance. And when we finished our last piece, everyone stood up and they were cheering, applauding, and it was worth it. And then I forgot how good it is to perform to an audience. Some parts where they're clapping or they're laughing, it just gives you so much motivation to keep going. I was giving a thousand percent, like feeling on stage. It was just the best feeling ever. I forgot how much I miss performing, actually. It was really nice. So what I want to say is you cannot miss a performance this year. You have to see it. I think it's really, really worth it. It's something that you should... It's a good time for your whole family. Something you can enjoy. So don't miss the performance. Buy tickets now. We're adding shows to the city because ticket sales are so good. Really? Are we? Yeah, we are. So we're going to have a double-double at the city. Really? You didn't tell me that. It's going to be two shows on Saturday, two shows on Sunday, I believe. So it's going to be extra tight. That's pretty intense. But you know what? It's going to be worth it. We're excited for it. We're excited to perform for you guys. We're excited to be back on stage. And hopefully you guys can join us at the theaters. All right, let's get inside. It's freezing. It's freezing as you can see. Let's go. All right, guys. We just finished the first show of the 2023 season. How do you guys feel? We already talked about it earlier on the food. Oh, really? I wasn't there. Now we're done eating. Okay, okay. Hey, did you guys know that this is the first show for Stray Union this season? We said that already. You guys said that already? You're behind the thing. You want to hear what we're filming? It's very cold right now. Can we? You guys don't want to hear what I think? See ya. No, Sam. No, Sam, you can talk about it. Oh, it looks like I was a little bit late. But I guess, do you guys want to hear my feedback? My feedback is it's really cold. And I want to get back to the hotel.