CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—John Thomas, a retired Airforce captain turned gunsmith, said Shen Yun Performing Arts was “perfect” after attending the company’s evening show at the Paramount Theatre on April 11.

“It’s very unique and different from what you’d expect to normally see at a performance. They did a great job. Everybody was so polished, and everything was so perfect—I really enjoyed it. It was great,” he commented.

“I can’t imagine how much practice they’ve done to get to that point. Beyond the dancing, the singers were outstanding, the piano player was perfect, and everything was wonderful. You couldn’t ask for anything better.”

The New York-based performing arts company has met with wide acclaim since its founding in 2006. In the 2024 touring season, Shen Yun’s eight equally sized companies are set to perform in over 200 cities worldwide.

“I had never seen anything like that before—how they jumped in [the screen] and jumped out. You can tell that took a lot of practice too, that didn’t just happen. It’s just really neat. I enjoyed it,” he stated.

Before the communist takeover in 1949, Chinese people deeply believed in the divine. Shen Yun’s dream is to revive China’s 5,000 years of traditional culture and share with everyone the beauty and glory of pre-communist China.

He added that the modern-day story-based dance, which raised awareness about the Chinese Communist Party’s violent persecution of people of faith in present-day China, “is eye-opening.”

“It was neat how [the performers] incorporated [China’s] religious persecution and organ harvesting in the show and brought all that to light. It’s not something I think about often, but I can see now how many people it affects in China. That’s a huge population,” Mr. Thomas expressed.

“It’s something that needs awareness for sure. I hope [Shen Yun] is influential in a big way because there are so many people affected by all the problems [in China.] It’s a big hurdle.”

“It just really exceeded my expectations. It was really great, and I really enjoyed it,” he said.

“I would definitely recommend it to people and friends. It’s different and unusual compared to what you would normally expect to see in a theater performance, and that’s neat. It was fun.”