NEW YORK—Betty Haines, an Assistant Vice President at Bank of America, said she connected with the artists of Shen Yun Performing Arts on April 21.

Ms. Haynes, after seeing the performance at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, said that the artists conveyed the ancient Chinese culture well.

“It’s their gentle, kind warmth and spirituality,” said Ms. Haynes. “I found that they tell the story in their movements. Truly you can see the classical elements in of all of the movements.”

Shen Yun’s mission is to bring back China’s divinely inspired traditional culture through “breathtaking music and dance,” the Shen Yun website states. For thousands of years, Chinese people emphasized “principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution.

Ms. Haynes said that the spirituality inherent in the culture and therefore the performance is something everyone can connect with. 

“Everything goes to a higher level,” she said. “We all call it something different, but the belief is there.”

Ms. Haynes said that Shen Yun was her first encounter the Chinese culture.

“That’s just such a myth, that people associate it [China] with the stamp on the bottom of a tea cup, and it’s just not so,” said Ms. Haynes. “The culture is so rich and beautiful.”

Chinese culture, spanning back 5,000 years, was impacted heavily by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and under the influence of these faiths, “spawned a rich and profound system of values,” according to Shen Yun’s website. Examples include the concept that man and nature must be in balance, as well as virtues such as propriety, wisdom, and righteousness.

Ms. Haynes, invited by her mother-in-law to see Shen Yun, said that she was pleased to hear that Shen Yun presents an all-new performance every year.

Reporting by Pamela Tsai and Ivan Pentchoukov.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

Shen Yun Performing Arts is performing at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center through April 28.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.