SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘It’s so Beautiful It Makes You Want to Cry’: Shen Yun Theatergoer

Feb 12, 2025

MESA, Ariz.—Entrepreneur Penelope Popken had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts before but was just as uplifted and inspired seeing it again at the Ikeda Theater at Mesa Arts Center on Feb. 12.

“Oh my, it feels like heaven’s brought to earth, it’s incredible,” Ms. Popken said. “I’m almost crying watching because the music is so heavenly, ... you know the dancers are dancing like angels. And it’s so beautiful it makes you want to cry because this tradition that’s in this, is not in the world today.”

“And it makes you want to spread this beauty outward as much as you can,” she added. “It’s so beautiful.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance, and through music and dance aims to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, sharing with the world China before communism.

Ms. Popken is a business owner and influencer who has shared her journey of losing weight from 320 pounds.

She said watching Shen Yun had given her “so much inspiration.”

“One of my favorite lines was, don’t look at things with a bias. Don’t look at things with a bias. Look at things with compassion. And it was really beautiful,” she said, referencing the lyrics of an original song performed by one of Shen Yun’s bel canto soloists.

The song was a spiritual moment for Ms. Popken, who said it spoke of wanting to return to heaven.

Ms. Popken said the dance itself was “heavenly, godly,” and indeed Shen Yun’s name translates as “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” referencing the divinely inspired nature of traditional Chinese culture, which she felt was greatly needed in today’s world.

“We need it. We need it everywhere. Everywhere we need it. We need it every day,” she said. “We need to have tradition back.”

“Tradition to me, means everyone has compassion for each other, everyone is truthful with each other, and that we forbear hardship and that we overcome and that we’re kind to others. And it means that we respect our bodies and we respect God, it means that we respect nature and we respect others,” she said.

Reporting by Lily Yu 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.