SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Absolutely Astounding,’ Says Professor

Feb 02, 2025

SAN ANTONIO—The Carvalhos had been interested in seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts for years, but it wasn’t until Feb. 1 that Paulo Carvalho finally saw the performance with his family.

“I’m impressed with the richness of its culture,” Mr. Carvalho, a professor, said after seeing the Shen Yun at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

New York-based Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, takes as its mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and share with audiences “China before communism.”

Both the culture and production exceeded Mr. Carvalho’s expectations by far, he said, as he knew little about traditional Chinese culture before seeing Shen Yun.

“I found the performance absolutely fantastic,” Mr. Carvalho said, marveling at the coordination of the various elements of the production: dance, music, and an animated backdrop that took him by surprise.

“I found absolutely astounding how they jumped behind the stage, and then they flew in the sky, the coordination, the synchronization of the movements,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I definitely enjoy them. I would definitely recommend.”

Yvette and Mario Madrid were also seeing Shen Yun for the first time on Feb. 1, and said they found the performance inspirational.

“It was awesome, it was great. Very inspirational, very beautiful,” said Mrs. Madrid. She noted that the story-based dances in the program included pieces based on real events from the present day, including shining a light on the religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime.

Shen Yun handled these stories in a beautiful way, she added, and they felt encouraging in “that everybody was persecuted for their beliefs, their religion, and they stood strong, and they came out of it. It was just beautiful.”

Mr. Madrid added that the stories were universal, bridging cultural and language divides.

“The stories were very well told. Anybody can enjoy this show ... it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what language you speak,” he said. “You can share with anybody. Anybody will get the message and understand.”

For Mr. Madrid, that message was one of being “kind to people, to be a good person.”

“It’s inspirational. It maybe motivates people to just be nicer to each other,” he said. “You know, we’re not here a very long time. And so, just to be nice to each other. To be good people. To be good to each other.”

Reporting by Sally Sun, 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.