SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Captivates Former Attorneys: ‘I’ve Never Seen Colors That Bright in My Entire Life’

Feb 18, 2024

AUGUSTA, Ga.—Retired family attorneys Lisa Marban and Helen Flanagan watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Columbia County Performing Arts Center on Feb. 17.

“It was fantastic,” said Ms. Flanagan. “We loved it.”

“It was spectacular,” said Ms. Marban. “I’ve never seen colors that bright in my entire life, and I’ve never seen people move like that my entire life.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception, it has expanded to eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and show audiences the beauty and goodness of China before communism.

Ms. Flanagan was drawn by the movements in classical Chinese dance, which, according to the Shen Yun website, has thousands of years of history and is one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world.

“I think it was fascinating,” said Ms. Flanagan. “The dance movements, they make it look so simple and easy, but it’s very intricate and [has a] very high degree of difficulties. … We were all very impressed—just the energy itself was great.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Marban was captivated by Shen Yun’s patented animated backdrop, which allows performers to move seamlessly between the stage and the background.

“I want to know how they did that,” said Ms. Marban. “That was pretty fascinating.”

Shen Yun also performs with a live orchestra, which is unique because it combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments. One of the Chinese instruments is the erhu, a two-stringed instrument that can express a wide range of emotions. Ms. Flanagan said that she enjoyed the erhu solo.

“That two-stringed instrument was fantastic,” said Ms. Marban. “The mood that she was able to capture with something so simple … you could feel the emotion just with her playing that one simple instrument.”

Ms. Marban felt that the vivid colors in Shen Yun gave the performance an otherworldly touch.

“I have been reading about heaven a lot lately, and they talk about all the brilliant colors in heaven that you just can’t describe it,” Ms. Marban shared. “When I was sitting there, I kind of felt like that’s what I had read about in the book.”

Shen Yun’s performance also includes story-based dances, some of which are set in modern-day China and depict the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of followers of faith. Ms. Flanagan expressed that although the persecution was not something she was familiar with, she appreciated the opportunity to learn about it. “I’m glad it brought it to the forefront for us. We certainly would educate ourselves more,” she said.

Both Ms. Marban and Ms. Flanagan said that Shen Yun was a performance they would recommend to the people around them.

“The whole thing was wonderful,” said Ms. Marban. “I really and truly didn’t know what to expect when I came here. It was beyond expectation. … I would even come back and see it.”

“We’ll come again next year, definitely,” said Ms. Flanagan.

Reporting by Frank Xie and Wandi Zhu.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.