SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘I Leave With My Soul Full,’ Says Shen Yun Theatergoer

Mar 27, 2025

3/27/2025Updated: 3/28/2025

NEW YORK CITY—Sitting in the audience of Shen Yun Performing Arts, Karina Geller felt the beauty itself was meditative.

“Wonderful, beautiful. I had a very soulful time,” said Ms. Geller, who works in real estate, after seeing Shen Yun at Lincoln Center on March 27. “Beautiful, soulful, peaceful. It was like meditating and seeing beauty and also seeing a side of China right now [that] is non-existent.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company. Through music and dance, Shen Yun’s mission is to show audiences the beauty of “China before communism.”

“We want it back,” Ms. Geller said of the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization that Shen Yun brought to life. Before communism, Chinese culture was said to be divinely inspired, and the Chinese believed their culture was a gift from the heavens.

For Ms. Geller, Shen Yun showed something “very positive.”

“And I think that it aligns with the change that the world needs to make. There is a positive force working. Very powerful,” she said. “Because the world, the last 10 years or 20 years, is very dark. And this is light.”

“There is pure beauty,” she said. Ms. Geller added that messages like “goodness” and “integrity” reached her soul. “I leave with my soul full.”

Also moved by Shen Yun were Randall and Louisa Murdock, who were amazed by the beauty, and horrified to learn that there have been campaigns backed by the Chinese communist regime to shut Shen Yun down that are still ongoing.

“It’s beautiful,” said Mrs. Murdock, who is retired from the public relations industry. “The show is amazing. The grace, the strength, the agility, it’s amazing how much you’ve studied to get to be able to do the amazing things that you do. And it’s beautiful.

Mrs. Murdock said she had read about the Chinese communist regime’s efforts to stop Shen Yun from performing with a years-long influence campaign, as well as the violent persecution of people of faith by the regime in China. The Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong, she learned, which is the communist regime’s prime target for forced organ harvesting.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, as well as five meditative exercises. Since 1999, the communist regime has persecuted practitioners of Falun Gong, even pursuing them overseas.

“We can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen,” Mrs. Murdock said, adding that it only made her want to support Shen Yun more. “In this day and age, this can’t be happening.”

Mr. Murdock found the artists’ mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization admirable and important, expressing his support as well.

“The young people have to work very hard to learn this. And the tradition of wherever you’re from is important. It needs to be brought to life, and particularly in front of other people. Very important. Carrying on their culture, not the communist culture, the Chinese culture. Very good,” he said. “God bless all of you.”

Reporting by Sherry Dong 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.