BOSTON—The Chinese dance and traditional music; the struggle for freedom of expression; and enlightenment were the elements that stood out for audience members at the matinee performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts World Company at Boston’s Citi Wang Theatre, March 2.

The New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. It’s four companies spend about six months touring each year, visiting around 20 countries and 100 cities.

Lawyers Ted and Elizabeth Wynne enjoyed the entire performance, including the orchestra, which combines a full philharmonic orchestra with traditional Eastern instruments.

“It was nice to hear all the traditional Chinese instruments,” Mrs. Wynne said.

She particularly liked the solo piece performed on the erhu, which is known as the Chinese violin. The erhu has only two strings but is capable of conveying a great range of emotions from somber to tender, and imitating the sound of birdcalls and horse neighs.

The performance featured an erhu solo performed by Mei Xuan.

“She was wonderful, she was just really good,” Mrs. Wynne said.

Mr. Wynne said the entire performance was “phenomenal” and “fantastic.”

“Everything—the color, the movement, the music—was terrific,” he said.

The couple’s daughter said she was surprised to learn that the difficult leaps and flips in the performance originated thousands of years ago in China.

‘It’s very spiritual’

Restaurant owner Damien Di Paola said what stood out for him was the struggle for free artistic expression in China.

“I can understand and appreciate [this] knowing what I know about the Chinese government,” he said.

The mission of Shen Yun is to revive China’s traditional arts, which have been lost in mainland China due to communist manipulation of artistic modalities for political ends. Shen Yun’s three companies perform around the world, but have not yet performed in China.

Business owner Diane Raimey said she was impressed with the beauty of the performance, and found it had a spiritual message.

“I think it’s very beautiful. It’s very spiritual, enlightening,” she said.

With reporting by Huiwen Ji and June Fakkert

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

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.