SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun a Beautiful Introduction to Authentic Chinese Culture, Say New Yorkers

Mar 27, 2025

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

NEW YORK CITY—Like many audience members, Larry and Lisa Crossley had known little about traditional Chinese culture but had their interest piqued watching Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“Oh, it’s beautiful. Choreography is wonderful and the music is fantastic and very peaceful and calm and nice,” said Mr. Crossley, a vice president of sales, after seeing Shen Yun on March 27 with his wife at Lincoln Center.

“Just the music, the dance, everything, it’s just the whole thing together is beautiful,” Mrs. Crossley said. “It’s like a learning experience.”

Mr. Crossley agreed, “I think it kind of just makes us more interested in the culture and wanting to learn more.”

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

George Dupree enjoyed Shen Yun at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on March 27, 2025. (Frank Liang/The Epoch Times) — George Dupree enjoyed Shen Yun at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on March 27, 2025. Frank Liang/The Epoch Times

Also intrigued by the ancient history and traditional culture of China was George Dupree, a pastor, who found great meaning in the beauty the artists created.

“I just thought the dance, the movements, the music, the orchestra was totally amazing. Far beyond what I even expected,” he said. “The music was incredible. The orchestra was so perfect. And the one instrument [the erhu], that really impressed me, I just couldn’t believe the sound that was coming from that. ”

Traditional Chinese culture is a divinely inspired culture, and Mr. Dupree found much that resonated with him as he saw similarities between the spirituality of the culture and his own Christian faith.

“The redemption, the compassion, the mercy, the disciplines, to be focused on the creator rather than ourselves, I thought that was beautiful,” he said. “I think it conveyed a message of hope, of hope for humanity, that there’s something greater and bigger than us, and something of great love and compassion.”

Mr. Dupree said during one part of the performance, the program also conveyed the message that “in difficult times, holding on to traditions helps to anchor us. And I thought that that’s so true. And I saw it displayed in the performance.”

He added that the performance showed the interplay of good and evil, corruption and faith through the millennia, but in the end, “how good will triumph over evil.”

“It was just, it was so impressive to the senses, but also to my soul,” he said.

Reporting by Frank Liang 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.