SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

St. Petersburg Theatergoers See Themes of Beauty and Freedom in Shen Yun

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St. Petersburg Theatergoers See Themes of Beauty and Freedom in Shen Yun
Marianne Stephens and Nicole Parker attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts, Mahaffey Theater, in St. Petersburg, Fla., on May. 4, 2024. Yeawen Hung/The Epoch Times

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Marianne Stephens, a hospital risk manager, and Nicole Parker, a client success manager, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts, Mahaffey Theater, on May 4.

“[I] absolutely enjoyed the performance,” Ms. Stephens said. “Beautiful costumes and the dancers are very talented. Completely enjoyable.”

“I also thought it was beautiful,” Ms. Parker agreed. “The performers, they really embodied their characters and I enjoyed the colorfulness. It was very fun to see that. It really brought out the life, and I’m really, really happy with everything we saw today.”

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has been the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company since its inception in 2006. Its performers come from all around the world, united in their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture, and the beauty and goodness of China before communism. Shen Yun currently has eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously, delighting audiences in over 200 cities across more than 20 countries and spanning five continents.
Ms. Stephens said that besides the dancing, she also enjoyed the songs performed in the traditional bel canto style. Meanwhile, Ms. Parker said she enjoyed the traditional Chinese instruments in Shen Yun’s live orchestra, such as the two-stringed erhu.

Shen Yun’s program also includes story-based dances, some of which are set in modern-day China and depict the steadfast perseverance of followers of faith who are persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.

Ms. Parker said she saw freedom and beauty as two important themes, and Ms. Stephens said that “before communism, [Chinese] people were free to worship the Creator, and nowadays, they are not allowed to worship that. They have to look to the state for their religion or so-called religion.”
Ms. Stephens also praised the dancers’ high caliber.

“I couldn’t imagine having that ability to be so graceful and flexible and ... so flowing,” she said. “It must have taken absolute years to achieve that. I know it did ... I know only the elite few can make that level of being in the performance.”

Reporting by Yeawen Hung 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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