SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Divinely Inspired Culture in Shen Yun Deeply Felt by Atlanta Theatergoers

Feb 01, 2025

ATLANTA—Mexican actress Zully Keith and her daughter, Ursula Susunaga, were drawn to Shen Yun Performing Arts because of its beauty, and after seeing the performance, they realized the beauty of the art was not just physical but also spiritual.

“This is wonderful, this is spectacular,” said Ms. Keith after seeing Shen Yun on Jan. 31 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. She said she has seen many shows because of her career as an actress and expressed a deep appreciation for the performing arts.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to share with audiences the beauty of China before communism. For 5,000 years, Chinese civilization was a spiritual one, with the Chinese people believing their culture was divinely inspired.

Ms. Susunaga said this spirituality inspired her and her mother.

“These shows give peace, give gratitude in the soul, and feel very completely with the energy of all the dancers,” Ms. Keith said, adding that she, like the dancers, practice meditation. In the program book, Shen Yun explains that its artists follow the traditional Chinese culture they seek to revive and practice the spiritual meditation practice of Falun Gong, which teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

“It’s beautiful. Everything is beautiful,” Ms. Keith said. “It’s a representation of God through the dance and through humans.”

Retired educator and principal Lemoyen Shelnutt felt the beauty of Shen Yun reached her heart.

“It was just magnificent. It was so beautiful, and the costumes were gorgeous. I loved the way that they flowed. The scarves flowing out of their sleeves were just beautiful. And everything was so synchronized, and the dance was perfectly synchronized with the music. And it was just so beautifully done,” said Ms. Shelnutt after seeing the performance Jan. 31.

The synchronicity involved the use of an animated backdrop, she added, where the dancers seemed to disappear into the screen and sky before reappearing on stage.

Several stories made a lasting impression on Ms. Shelnutt.

“There were messages about healing that I thought were just so beautiful,” she said, describing one of the stories that involved divine intervention. “It’s really dear to my heart. And then also when the two lovers, when they were reunited in the sky, that was so beautiful.”

“The spirituality was so beautiful,” Ms. Shelnutt said. “I just loved the parts where the angelic beings would come, and even the person would be like in dire distress. They'd be just about to die, and then the angelic being would heal them. And I thought that was just so beautiful.”

Reporting by Frank Xie 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.