SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun an Experience of Beauty, Harmony, and Learning, Says Retired CEO

Jan 12, 2025

MIAMI—Richard Chiaraviglio, retired CEO, thought Shen Yun Performing Arts had perfectly encapsulated the meaning of “harmony.”

“The most important thing that I got is from the conduct of the performers that there is a desire for harmony. And that is the most important thing, I think,” said Mr. Chiaraviglio, who, now retired, says his own occupation is to enjoy life and seek “harmony.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company and takes as its mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

“Marvelous. It’s a different culture. It’s a different culture, it’s an extraordinary past, admirable,“ Mr. Chiaraviglio said after seeing the performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami on Jan. 11. ”Fantastic, extraordinary.”

“It was a learning. Aside from enjoying it—the beauty and the harmony that is in all the show—it’s a learning of different experiences, different people thinking or feeling that we didn’t know before. So it’s been a magnificent experience,” he said.

Mr. Chiaraviglio so enjoyed the experience he said, “I wanted to jump there also.”

The traditional Chinese culture that Shen Yun presents—a divinely inspired culture—is one that cannot be shown in China today under communist rule. In fact, many of the elite artists who established Shen Yun in 2006 had faced religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime before seeking freedom overseas.

Mr. Chiaraviglio said that if Shen Yun stood for harmony, the Chinese communist regime was the opposite.

“It’s coercion and not allowing people to feel whatever and express their feelings,” he said.

Also in the audience Saturday night was Elena Stungis, vice president of sales for a jewelry company, who said the religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime was similar to what she had witnessed growing up in the Soviet Union.

She said it was “heartbreaking” and even scary to see that such persecution continued today and supported Shen Yun’s use of art to exercise their freedom of expression.

“I appreciate that they added these steps to bring awareness,” she said. “This communism that kills love, kills inspiration. It’s the enemy.”

The art itself was “beautiful, a beautiful performance,” with “spectacular costumes,” and music, Ms. Stungis said. “I always wanted to watch it, and I’m amazed.”

Reporting by Kailiang Jia 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.