The Hardest City on Shen Yun Tour? Performing at 7,349 Feet in Mexico City

We're performing in the most challenging theater this tour. At over 7,000 feet above sea level, even breathing feels hard. Yet, we still have to perform in front of almost 10,000 people. Watch this video to see the mindset sharing dancers use to overcome challenges like this. Hey guys, check out where we are right now. We are in Auditorium Nationale. This is one of the biggest theaters in the world. It is also one of the most challenging theaters we have this tour. Because we are over 7,000 feet above sea level and this stage is huge. So watch this episode because I'm going to show you guys how sharing performers deal with these challenges. Watch to the end because I'm going to show you this new secret weapon I found to deal with elevation. Oh, and guys, how many seats do you think is in this theater? Let me know in the comments right now and I'll reveal it at the end. See if you're right, okay? I just realized that the best person to ask first is someone that literally uses air to produce sound. Okay, Jimmy, how many times have you been in this theater before? I think it's my third time here. So you're kind of experienced with this kind of elevation. A little bit, yeah. We just had a dress rehearsal. Did you find it hard? Surprisingly, no. Thankfully, we came from Queretaro, which was almost 7,000 feet. So getting a little bit acclimated to the elevation here already. When you were performing in Queretaro, what part during the performance is like the hardest? At the ending of Manchu Dance, there's a very long lyrical trumpet phrase with the violins that I usually try to not breathe. But in Queretaro, I had to breathe, I think, at least once or twice in the middle of the phrase, which I try to avoid at all costs. But when you're running out of air, do what you gotta do. All right, good luck for the show tonight, Jimmy. And we'll see how you feel after the show. Yeah, I'll let you know. All right, I magically have makeup on. But I'm here with Will. Hi, guys. Hi, Sampu. Will, I was telling the audience how this is probably the most challenging theater we have all tour. There's actually a lot of things. We're really high in elevation. It's a huge stage, so you have to run more. And then also, for me, I'm having a little bit of food poisoning in Mexico. So basically, I think I ate something sketchy. So I was having, you know, running to the bathroom very often. And it makes me more tired. So I just want to ask you, like in these situations when it's so tough, how do you deal with it? I've been to Mexico 10 times to perform. So this is actually my 10th year performing in Mexico. So every year is a little bit different. And every year, it's also very challenging. But your mental state is definitely what's going to pull you through, you know, in these performances. For sure, I agree with you. There's a lot of challenges we face when performing in Mexico. But it depends on what you focus on. So if you're going to focus on how the stage is so big, the elevation is so high, it's going to give you very low energy. And you're going to feel very tired. There's nothing like your mental state is that strong. You can focus on anything else. For example, a runny stomach or whatever. You're going to run to the bathroom. For me, I'm feeling pretty good. So I don't have that issue right now. So that's something for me to be grateful about. Just being healthy, not having any injuries. That's something to be grateful about. And then if I'm focusing on that, it gives me more energy. I'm like, yeah, I feel good for the show. Also, what are we doing here? We're bringing our performance to the audience. And when they finish watching our performance, you see them. They feel inspired. They feel hopeful. They learn a little bit of something from our performance. And that also gives us a lot of energy. So if you're focusing on all of these positive aspects, it really gives you a lot of energy and momentum. So today is our first performance in Mexico City. I feel really excited right now. Did you feel like a little bit out of breath when we did the dress rehearsal? Yeah, I did definitely. When you're on stage here, you do feel a little bit out of breath. But we started our tour in Mexico in Monterrey, which is 1,500 feet. And then we went to Querétaro, which is 6,500 feet. And now we're at 7,400 feet. We're actually gradually going up. And we've also been in Mexico for about 10 days already. So I feel like I'm more acclimated to the elevation as well. So we are going to have our first performance in Mexico City tonight. 加油! As we say. Yeah, let's go. 加油! Looking forward to it. Let's go. Let's see how we feel afterwards, OK? Yeah, hero. I just want to ask you how you felt after the dress rehearsal. Being such a heavy wind player. I'm just kidding. I know you play violin. Did you feel a difference? You mean the high altitude? Yeah. Not from the playing the instrument, but I do feel a bit of dizziness. What are you doing to push past your dizziness? Nothing. Just embrace it. OK, thanks for the feedback. I want to just be honest with the audience. I wanted to start to be like, yo, guys, we finished. It was an awesome show. Best show ever. But I realized that this show was pretty hard for me. Staying positive really did help. Because I actually felt like my energy was zero. And I tried to be positive and focus on performing. It had a spike. But it went back to zero after a little bit. My body is a little bit lacking energy. Because I'm going to the bathroom and letting it all out. But then it was a really good show, though. We could see the audience. They were so happy. Overall, I think for everyone, the show was very smooth. And even the setup was very smooth. So Mexico City, the National Theater, coming back this time, it's actually a very nice venue. The production team was very happy. The dancers, our changing room and everything is very clean. And in terms of energy-wise, I don't have as many dances. Because near the end of the show, I was pretty pumped. I was like, oh, yeah, the end of the show is pretty good today. I didn't feel too tired. And Sam was like, you don't have anything. OK, Sam, we said, you don't even have that much. And I was like, oh, daggers, man, daggers to my heart. Oh, so much pain. Right after I said it, I felt like I should have said that. That's not cool. I'm actually sorry. I accept your apology. I feel like what you said is still true. Actually, in the beginning of the show, I was kind of thinking about the breathing. It made me feel like I wasn't focusing on my movements. And I felt really dangerous. Because I'm just thinking about, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. Like, I could mess up my movements. So I just try to focus on, like, I'm like, whatever you used to do during a normal show, just do normally. Don't even think about the air thing. Wise words from Sam Poole. And also here, we have one show tomorrow. And the last day, we have two shows. Definitely going to be a challenge. But I actually am happy that they did that. Because we have tomorrow to get used to, you know, the elevation and stuff. And the last day, you just finished with the banger. Two shows. So we'll bring you along and we'll see. All right. Let's go get some. Oh my gosh. Sam Poole, let's go get some tacos. I kind of can't eat now. All right. Good night. Before we head into day two, where I take you behind the scenes of this massive theater, I want to thank the sponsor of this video, Jeju Welling Red Sea Cucumber Gel. This has honestly been a game changer for me here in Mexico. So really quick, let's introduce what it is. As dancers, we have one of the biggest problems is back pain. You have a show and the next morning you can't move. So this has a lot of collagen in it and really helps with that. Including like joint pain or knee pain. In here, believe it or not, is red sea cucumber. And it's distilled into a gel. The ingredient is from Jeju. It was captured by the traditional sea divers called Henio. Most of them are very old. 60 something years old is like young divers. That means it's really hard to come to get basically. Definitely limited amount. Because the actually like human source, you could go dive and then capture it. That's why it's so hard to buy these. These go off the shelf really fast actually. Okay, so right now we're trying some red sea cucumber from Korea. And let's try it out and see how it tastes. Oh, sorry, I already taste it. Tastes pretty good. I taste it too. I'm ready. What? Wait, it tastes like fruit. It tastes like a dessert. This is actually really good. Because red sea cucumber sounded scary to me. I was like, it must be tasting nasty. Like I'm ready for my joints to feel stronger. I don't mind eating this every day. It tastes good. Guys, actually I gave some to my dad. Because there was a testimony from someone that was 88 years old. He couldn't even walk properly before. But after eating it, his back and his joints were so much better that he could walk properly. So this has made a huge difference. But again, it's different for everybody. It's not like you eat it, it's going to be the same for everybody. Okay, you can get 15% off if you use our code. We're going to put it on the screen. 3M15. 3M15, you get 15% off. I need to use that code to get some of these. Yeah, this is really good. Important thing, tastes good. Hey guys, this is day two. We're back in the theater. We have a show today. As you can see, this place is humongous. Look how big that stage is. This is how it feels like to sit here. Right now, I'm going to go all the way back there and show you what it looks like to sit there. This place was started in 1952. Back then, it could seat 13,000 people. It's crazy. But they renovated in the 90s and it changed that it could seat almost 10,000 people. And that's still crazy because this is not a stadium. Stadiums can seat a lot, but this is still a theater with a stage and amazing acoustics. That's what really makes this place epic. Right now, it has 9,366 seats. I'm in the... Oh God, I'm breathing hard. I'm in the back row sitting here. See how huge that is? And you're going to be watching the show from here. So since the audience is a little bit far, when we perform, we have to make our movements a lot bigger on stage so that people sitting here could see it. It's very well designed. Every seat can still see the stage clearly. Now I'm going to go backstage and we're going to see how many famous people actually perform here. Let's go. So another cool thing about this place, it's actually one of the top grossing venues in the world. And there's a lot of very famous people that perform here. Even though I don't recognize most of these people. Okay, at least I know one. Isaac Hernandez is a ballet dancer. Ray Charles. Can I do a quick video? Yes. Who is the most famous person that's ever performed here? Well, I think that's Ringo Starr. That's a problem. I'm not that person. He's a singer, but... The Beatles. Oh, the Beatles. Okay, there we go. I'm too young for that one. Elton John. Oh, Elton John. Yeah, okay. Coldplay. Whoa, Coldplay, okay. I heard that this is one of the top venues in the world. Mexico is the most important. Is it? Yes. Wow, I'm really honored to be here. Yeah, and you also. I am also very famous. For me. Hey, thank you for the quick interview. You're welcome. After seeing the famous people, I wanted to come outside and show you guys a little bit of the lobby. It's pretty crazy. It's outdoors, but there's a roof. The sheer size of this is crazy. So the people that work here, they have so many of them because it's such a big place that it feels like a military operation. And they have a huge banner I'm showing you over here. I really like the fact that the architect tried to make a connection with the rest of the city. So you kind of enjoy the city and it connects you directly into the theater. That's my theory. Or they ran out of material. I don't know. That's it. I'm going to go back. I'm going to get ready for the performance. We'll see you guys soon. Hey, guys. So we finished day two of Mexico City. Just got back to the hotel room and I'm a little too tired to carry right now. Today, I felt a lot better. Almost like a normal show. Just a little harder to breathe. And I'm no longer needing to use the bathroom. That's a big thing. I'm able to eat whatever I want. So with a little celebratory meal, we got this. It's called Chubby's Burgers. It was started in Hawaii. Never had it before. It's a smash burger, but I'm having it in Mexico because my roommate had it yesterday and I was just watching him eat. Oh, they came with fries. Nice. This is their special. I couldn't tell what was in the burger because it was in Spanish. Double patty. Let's try it. It's very sweet. I think it's because of the caramelized onions. The meat is very juicy. Very good. The bun is very soft. Very good. We have a challenge tomorrow. We have two shows. So I'll see you guys tomorrow and I'll let you guys know how those two shows turn out. Okay? Good luck. Hey, good morning, guys. Honestly, when I woke up, I felt like a sudden pressure on my shoulders because of the elevation. It feels almost like we're having two shows in one show. Today, we have two shows. So it feels like we're gonna have four shows in one day. Again, I went back to trying to focus on the positive things instead of thinking like, oh, it's so hard. I wouldn't have two shows. What do I do? It's gonna be a nightmare. Let's try to put it into practice now. We're gonna go to the theater and keep you guys updated on how the shows go. All right, guys. We just finished our first show. It was actually really successful. I tried to give myself a challenge. I was like, okay, I'm gonna try to go through the first show without using my secret weapon, which I told you guys about in the beginning of the video. I found this. It's called electrolyte or light. Basically, it's like Gatorade, but with less sugar and sodium, potassium. I drank a little bit during the intermission and it helped a lot. If you guys are ever in high health, just try it. Anyways, we have one more show today. Honestly, a little bit tired, but I'm gonna pump myself up. Hopefully, I'm gonna have a good show and I'll see you guys afterwards, okay? Guys, we did it. I know I look, I know... I can't even speak right now. I've used up all the energy in my hair. We finished it. We finished Maxwell City. Yes! Oh, I'm so happy right now. Even though it's one of the most challenging parts of the tour, it's also one of the most rewarding parts of the tour because there's so many audience members. You get to reach so many people at once. We're gonna party afterwards. The long-awaited fiesta after the show. Let's go. Right now, we're having a fiesta. We just finished our last performance in Maxwell City. Definitely, by far, the toughest city to perform in all year. Three days, four shows, but we did it. Right now, this is our reward. Time to fiesta. Fiesta, fiesta. We got some chicken burgers, some fries, a bunch of tacos to share. Jeffrey ordered like $160 of tacos for us. He's gonna treat us today. He's the big boss. Thank you, Jeffrey. No problem. All right, guys. Let's eat. That's it for this episode. Hope you guys got something out of it. Like, comment, subscribe. We'll see you guys on the next one.