SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Inspires ‘A Renewed Desire to Do Better in Life’: Surgeon

Jan 21, 2023

DENVER—Shen Yun Performing Arts took to the stage in Denver for the first of its five performances at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on the evening of Jan 20.

Seeing Shen Yun for the first time, oral surgeon Michael Bingham thought the performance was “very talented and thought-provoking.” It offered him a peek into a culture that he “doesn’t get to hear or see very often.”

Shen Yun was established in 2006 and is now the world’s top classical Chinese dance and music company. The mission of these New York-based artists is to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture that were destroyed by decades of communist rule.

For its 2023 touring season, Shen Yun’s eight equally sized companies are scheduled to perform in more than 180 cities worldwide.

Dr. Bingham said Shen Yun artists are definitely “meeting their goal” to revive traditional culture and after the show he felt “a renewed desire to do better in life, to be kind, and to be good to the people around me.”

When speaking of the ancient belief that Chinese culture was inspired and passed down by the divine, Dr. Bingham expressed that “there are some consistencies throughout all the world and all the civilizations. I think it’s the memories that we brought with us [from the heavens.] So, when we see depictions of the divine, it touches us and reminds us of where we’re from.”

Referring to the skills of the performers Dr. Bingham said, “they made it look so easy, and I know it couldn’t have been. [It must have taken] hundreds of hours of practice and dedication.”

“I think it’s part of the experience. Maybe a touch of the divine. The skills and talents—I think that’s a portion of the divine that shines through,” he said, “It’s not something common, it’s not something worldly. It’s something divine.”

I love to be this close to music. It seemed to have just surrounded me. I was in the middle of music.

— Dr. Michael Bingham

For Dr. Bingham, music especially is a universal language that touches people and all of creation. He was mesmerized by Shen Yun’s live orchestra. “I love to be this close to music. It seemed to have just surrounded me. I was in the middle of music.”

Shen Yun’s orchestra features a classical Western ensemble while highlighting as permanent members of the orchestra traditional Chinese instruments like the two-stringed erhu and the pipa, an ancient Chinese lute. Shen Yun’s pioneering orchestration and original compositions have received praise from critics around the world.

“If we’re divine beings having an earthly experience, then [there must have been] portions of the divine that we brought with us. I think music is one of those things. Music and art—the expressions of joy.”

Reporting by Lily Yu 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.