SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘Really Makes My Heart Happy’: Theatergoer Inspired by Shen Yun

Mar 08, 2025

STAMFORD, Conn.—Andrea Ellis had just resigned from her corporate career to pursue a new chapter in the arts and found in an evening at The Palace Theatre seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts brought her renewed inspiration.

“I love how they were able to really show that passion, how they were inspiring,” Ms. Ellis said after seeing the March 8 performance. “You can see in the performance how they have been practicing and how discipline is very important, and that, for me, is something that my dad really taught me before he died. So that’s why when I come here and I see this, it really makes my heart happy.”

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

The performance brought up many moments of nostalgia, self-discovery, and inspiration for Ms. Ellis, who said as a Colombian she understands what a communist regime can do to destroy a culture and country.

There were moments in Shen Yun’s revival of five millennia that touched on the modern day and people of faith showing courage and belief despite religious persecution, and Ms. Ellis said she cried seeing what the regime has done to a culture.

In other moments, Ms. Ellis was swept up in the romance of classic Chinese fairytales, finding the devotion displayed by star-crossed lovers touching.

“I love how it was very engaging to really understand Chinese culture,” Ms. Ellis said. She said she discovered the spirituality and divinely inspired nature of the traditional Chinese culture and could relate to it with her own spirituality and Colombian roots.

“It really touched me because it’s like understanding the culture and how their spirituality is very similar to my culture even though we are so far away,” she said.

The performance also reminded Ms. Ellis of her father and the meaningful lessons he imparted.

“I believe he is in heaven and he is still next to me. Even if he is in my heart, I have felt it. I am very spiritual,” she said. She appreciated the idea of heaven, enlightenment, and afterlife that the traditional culture in the performance touched on, which she felt was a reminder that there was more to life than the material.

“I love the culture,” she said, adding that she thought Shen Yun showed a theme of “spiritual awakening even in bad times, in hard times.”

“Even though cultural and political situations happen, still the spirituality is there for you to really ground yourself and succeed in life,” she said.

Reporting by Sally Sun 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.