SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘Art Like This Needs to Happen,’ Says Shen Yun Audience Member

Jan 26, 2025

VENICE, Fla.—Jeremy Erhart, retired business owner, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts for the first time on Jan. 25 at the Venice Performing Arts Center and found the production and artistic level to be “unbelievable.”

“The dancing is just fantastic,” he said. “And the orchestra music is really good too, without a doubt ... the range of emotions is never-ending.”

The digital backdrop, too, of Shen Yun’s own design, was impressive: “That was amazing. I read there’s a patent on it too—that’s really cool. The jumping in and out of it was awesome.”

“It’s beautiful. It’s one of the most beautiful performances I’ve ever seen, without a doubt,” said Mr. Erhart. “Just emotional, but amazing and beautiful, amazing and beautiful.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, and puts on an all-new production each year in its mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, or “China before communism.”

Mr. Erhart felt it was a worthy mission.

“Art like this needs to happen needs to be in existence, for sure,” he said. “My biggest takeaway is that Chinese culture is beautiful, and it’s alive and well with Shen Yun. So, I’ll look forward to seeing it next year.”

Audience member Carlos de Quesada, a consultant, also felt Shen Yun had succeeded in its mission of reviving the divinely inspired traditional Chinese culture and sharing it with the world.

“Keeping that culture alive is fantastic,” he said after seeing Shen Yun with his daughter. He enjoyed learning about the breadth and depth of five millennia of Chinese civilization, noting that the program included ethnic and folk dances showing several of the 50-plus ethnic minorities of China.

Mr. de Quesada felt the themes and values in the culture Shen Yun presented were universal—“tolerance, harmony compassion”—and that it showed what kind of regime the Chinese Communist Party was to oppose those.

“Those are all good qualities that anyone in the world should be able to agree on,” he said. “I think some of those qualities are manifested in the art form, the dance, the expressions, the movement. Those are all good qualities.”

“I just pray for them. I’m a Christian. I'll be praying and thanking them for the effort and the sacrifice to promote something so beautiful,” he said.

Reporting by Nancy Ma and Catherine Yang.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.