SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Has ‘Incredible Choreography,’ Says Alabama Theatergoer

Mar 16, 2025

3/16/2025Updated: 3/16/2025

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—On March 15, manager trainer Sam Taylor and his wife Jacqueline, an architecture student, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts for the second time in a week.

“It’s amazing. We actually just saw the show for the first time last week in Savannah. And then my daughter wasn’t able to come with us last week ... so we drove four hours to come out and bring her to the show,” Mr. Taylor said in the lobby of BJCC Concert Hall.

Sammy couldn’t have been happier with her father’s decision. “It’s really beautiful. ... There’s a lot of funny parts in it,” she said. “The coordination between every dancer is amazing.”

The New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance and music company. Presenting a brand-new set of programs each year, the company has been delighting audiences around the world since 2006.

Mr. Taylor was very impressed by Shen Yun’s huge array of colorful costumes.

“Everything was so vibrant and the way everything was designed, it was perfect for the movements. It was really awesome,” he said. “Incredible choreography. Extremely.”

Shen Yun artists are masters of classical Chinese dance, an ancient and highly expressive art form dating back thousands of years. Unlike the modern, military-influenced styles often seen in China today, Shen Yun preserves and performs this tradition in its most authentic form, as it was originally passed down through generations.

“It’s precise. Just the muscle memory that every dancer has—it’s amazing,” Mrs. Taylor said. “I did ballet for a long time. So, I know how hard it is to perform something like this. It was beautiful.”

The family also enjoyed Shen Yun’s live orchestra. Using classical Western orchestration as the foundation, the artists’ original compositions highlight traditional Chinese instruments such as the two-stringed erhu and the pipa—an ancient Chinese lute—bringing the audience the best of both worlds.

For Mr. Taylor, the artists’ mission to bring back the traditional values destroyed by decades of communist rule was loud and clear.

Spirituality and traditional culture have been “so heavily overshadowed with what’s happened in China over the last 100 years,” he said.

“That made it really hard for people to see the beauty behind the culture—the long culture of the Chinese people. So, it’s beautiful that this is happening.”

Moreover, Mrs. Taylor said the performance was very educational and inspiring. This is especially true “for people that don’t have a lot of experience with art,” she said. “This is something that can bring people more into the arts.”

Reporting by Sonia Wu and Jennifer Tseng.

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