SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

High School Educator Amazed at Shen Yun Performers’ Energy

Apr 12, 2025

4/12/2025Updated: 4/12/2025

UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill.—Shen Yun Performing Arts delivered a splendid performance for its new 2025 season at the Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University on April 12. Caitlin Clough and her brother Eric brought their whole family to enjoy Shen Yun.

Ms. Clough, a high school educator of Earth Science, said that Shen Yun “is amazing. Everybody is so talented, and their faces are so expressive. They really convey different pieces of the story with all their emotions, and it’s just so beautiful.”

She was very impressed with the skill and dedication of the performers. “Absolutely,” Ms. Clough said. “They really embody the story that they’re telling. Sitting in the fourth row back here, it’s amazing because you can hear their breath sometimes, and all the energy that they’re just putting into their performance.”

Many audiences have commented on the energy that seems to flow from the stage to the audience. Ms. Clough said she could feel the positive energy in many ways: “all of it—emotionally, physically, mentally. It’s a beautiful story.”

Mr. Clough, a pharmacist, said, “It’s very interesting seeing the different aspects of the culture, and the religious and spiritual aspects.” He said Shen Yun was “definitely a new” experience for him.

He enjoyed the dance of the Water Sleeves, which he found very interesting. “I hadn’t been exposed to that before. So that was very unique.”

Shen Yun aims to revive the 5,000 years of traditional culture from “China before communism.” There are many stories and legends from this rich culture that the dancers depict for audiences around the world.

Mr. Clough was touched by the stories. “You definitely can see the emotions of the stories, especially the story [from the Chinese literary classic ‘Journey to the West’] of Pigsy and the Monkey King,” he said.

He also resonated with the spiritual qualities in the stories. “You can definitely relate to the spiritual aspects because even though you might not relate on an individual story level, everyone’s got instances in their life where they’ve felt that way before,” he said. “Whether it’s animosity from others or prejudices and things like that, and we’ve all experienced that. You can see that in the stories, and it appeals to you.”

Shen Yun has a live orchestra with Western and Eastern instruments and singers who sing in Mandarin as the lyrics are projected in English on a backdrop. The lyrics describe that each person originally came to Earth from the heavens to fulfill a mission.

“That’s one of those things that I think you have to reflect on even further, rather than just right now. ... It’s a lot deeper than you might think at first,” Mr. Clough said.

Reporting by Sherry Dong and Yvonne Marcotte.

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