SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘Very Enlightening and Culturally Diverse,’ Says Business Owner

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Shen Yun Is ‘Very Enlightening and Culturally Diverse,’ Says Business Owner
Alicia Barker and Jim Beyer enjoyed Shen Yun's matinee at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Feb. 25, 2024. Sharon Lin/The Epoch Times

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Business owner Jim Beyer and Alicia Barker, a classically trained ballerina, attended Shen Yun’s matinee at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Stepping out of the theater on the afternoon of Feb. 22, Mr. Beyer said Shen Yun was fantastic.

“It’s very enlightening and culturally diverse,” he said. “I love Chinese culture. It’s a beautiful culture, very rich in history.”

In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was established in New York by artists who dreamt of bringing back China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.
Through a series of classical, ethnic, folk, and story-based dances, as well as solo musical performances, Shen Yun is rediscovering and sharing with the world the lost beauty of pre-communist China.

Mr. Beyer thinks Shen Yun’s focus on culture is very important because “people have a perception of [Chinese] politics here in the U.S., but [they’ve] lost sight of China’s rich and deep culture.”

In fact, that’s what brought the couple to Shen Yun, “to just reconnect with the culture,” Ms. Barker added.

A retired ballerina, she paid extra attention to Shen Yun’s dancers and noticed that classical Chinese dance is very different from ballet.

“The steps here are foreign to me. It’s so different. It’s been a great experience,” she expressed.

“I love it. It feels more delicate, and I feel like it’s finer. There’s attention to detail in the moves with classical ballet, but everything [here] is smaller and more delicate.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun artists are highly trained in classical Chinese dance. Dating back thousands of years, it is one of the most athletic and expressive art forms in the world.

According to Shen Yun’s website, the classical Chinese dance we see in China today is heavily mixed with military and modern dance styles. Only at Shen Yun can you find it performed in its purest form—the way it was originally passed down through the generations.

Ms. Barker also loved that their seats were very close to Shen Yun’s live orchestra, the first in the world to permanently combine classical Chinese and Western instruments.

“It’s beautiful, it’s gorgeous,” she said. “The music is peaceful. Just hearing and feeling it— because we’re so close, we can feel some of it.”

Mr. Beyer, too, agreed that the show was a great experience. However, what impressed him was Shen Yun’s commitment to raising awareness for ongoing human rights issues in modern-day China. It’s a stark contrast to the freedom that is enjoyed in America.

Last but not least, Ms. Barker would like to thank Shen Yun performers for “all you’re doing to help educate us on your culture and for working so hard to put on a beautiful production.”

Ward Skip and Susan Bromaghim (R) attended Shen Yun's matinee at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Feb. 25, 2024. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)
Ward Skip and Susan Bromaghim (R) attended Shen Yun's matinee at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Feb. 25, 2024. Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times

Susan Bromaghim, a retired interior designer, and Ward Skip were also enjoying the matinee.

She loved every aspect of the performance and said it’s hard to pick a favorite. More than anything, she was amazed by the similarity between traditional Chinese and American culture.

“It’s amazing how similar some of our culture is. I just thought we were far more different as people than we really are,” she stated.

“The beauty of the dance. It made me teary. It was so beautiful, it really was. Just watching these human bodies so elegantly perform—It just overwhelmed me initially. Wow.”

For its 2024 touring season, Shen Yun’s eight equally-sized companies will be performing in over 200 cities across five continents. The company can be expected to return with a brand-new set of choreography and musical compositions every year.

Reporting by Sharon Lin, Sherry Dong, and Jennifer Tseng.
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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