SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Helps You Recognize the Beauty of the World You Don’t Realize You’re Missing, Says Baltimore Theatergoer

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Shen Yun Helps You Recognize the Beauty of the World You Don’t Realize You’re Missing, Says Baltimore Theatergoer
David Blohm attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, on Feb. 11, 2024. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

BALTIMORE—David Blohm, a web director, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Hippodrome Theatre on Feb. 11.

“It’s been amazing,” Mr. Blohm said. “The cast has been performing really well. I love the outfits, [the] great atmosphere … It’s been a lot of fun.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. It now has eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously.
Mr. Blohm said that he loved Shen Yun’s patented use of an animated backdrop, which saw performers move seamlessly between the stage and onto a screen. He also expressed that he was pleasantly surprised by the story-based dances in Shen Yun’s program.

Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and present the beauty of China before communism. Some of the story-based dances depict the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of followers of faith, and Mr. Blohm said that the performance gave him a deeper understanding of what is happening in today’s China.

“It … opened your eyes to the kind of persecution that’s happening,” he said.

Mr. Blohm also noted the kind of beauty that Shen Yun brings to the audience.

“It helps you recognize the beauty of the world that you don’t realize that you’re missing,” he said. “With work, you’re sitting there all day, you’re kind of stuck behind a computer, and you see the same thing day after day. But there’s just the amazing things that humans can do, but also just the amazing things that are out there in the world.”

“You get so used to what you see locally around you, but [there’s also] just the history and the beauty of China and everything that’s come from that.

‘Absolutely, Unbelievably Incredible’

Ruth and Mark Edwards attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, on Feb. 11, 2024. (Jenny Jing/The Epoch Times)
Ruth and Mark Edwards attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, on Feb. 11, 2024. Jenny Jing/The Epoch Times
Mark and Ruth Edwards were also among the audience. Mrs. Edwards, a secretary, had been wanting to see Shen Yun for many years, and the couple were glad to be able to finally enjoy the performance.

“Absolutely, unbelievably incredible,” said Mr. Edwards, who works as an investor. “The athleticism of the dancers is superb. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Mrs. Edwards said that she appreciated the traditional values Shen Yun’s performance encouraged, while Mr. Edwards shared that he felt it a shame that Shen Yun cannot be seen in China.

“It is a shame that the government of China does not allow this,” he said. “That cheats the Chinese people that are in China, because they should be able to enjoy this just like we do.”

Mr. Edwards said that he was not familiar with what China was like before communism before seeing Shen Yun.

“I never knew anything about China before communism, so this was kind of enlightening,” he said. “[I] learned that there was a whole … culture that existed before communism that has been forgotten about.”

Though Chinese culture was somewhat foreign to Mr. Edwards before he saw Shen Yun, he felt that the performance quickly helped him feel a connection to the Chinese.

“I don’t know a whole lot about Chinese culture, but in two hours, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about it through their stories and … through their values,” Mr. Edwards said. “As an American, I think it makes a connection between us and the Chinese people … so I think this links the two cultures in a unique way, a very beautiful way.”

Reporting by Terri Wu, Jenny Jing, and Wandi Zhu.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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