SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘ a Good Feeling of Beauty and Humanity,’ Says Music Director

Apr 12, 2025

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

NEW YORK CITY—Musician Michael Bower felt Shen Yun Performing Arts shared art that lifts the spirits.

“Everyone should come to see this—so peaceful,” said Mr. Bower, a music director, organist, choir conductor. He saw Shen Yun at Lincoln Center on April 11 and was among several artists that evening who thought the art “incredible.”

“I loved it. It was so wonderful. It was so beautiful. I’ve been wanting to come to this for a long time. It was so beautiful to see it. The dancing, the costumes, the culture. It was very beautiful,” Mr. Bower said.

“It was just very peaceful, like goodwill to people, which we need in our crazy world. A good feeling of beauty and humanity, a positive environment for our people and our world, and our planet, and countries and culture,” he said.

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

Mary Grant, a retired ballet dancer who performed with Alvin Ailey, and Corey Grant, an actor, producer, and teacher, said they had long been interested in Shen Yun and certainly took in the performance from their respective artistic perspectives.

“Wow. Where do I start? It was just the technique, the formation. Everybody was in sync. It was effortless. It was like they weren’t even trying. It was just graceful,” Mrs. Grant said. “Even the host, even when she walked away, I was just like, wow. Even her walk is just so graceful.”

“It was exceptional,” Mr. Grant said. “This was amazing and very refreshing to see.”

Mr. Grant said that not only was the performance beautiful, but it was an insight into China’s past and present. He said he had not known about the Chinese communist regime’s ongoing persecution of people of faith, and thought Shen Yun shone a spotlight on the issue artfully.

“It was very, very insightful, because I didn’t know that. So to get that was also, it wasn’t just a performance. It was a learning experience,” he said, adding that he wanted to encourage the artists to “keep it going.”

Mr. Grant said the insight into the spiritual nature of the traditional Chinese culture was meaningful as well. As a Christian, he saw Biblical principles in values and themes that stemmed from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

“It was very, very, very beautiful. Beautifully done,” he said. “Very touching. And it was very transformative to see the journey from the beginning to the end, and see how those characters have evolved, and see how their costumes match the story that they were telling in the colors. It was very, very, very insightful.”

“This is a production that I think needs to go all around the world, and every year. I’m hoping to bring kids next time and more and more people so they can see. You know, it’s one thing to get a television image, but to come and see a live production, it hits different,” he said.

Reporting by Weiyong Zhu, 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.