SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Inspires Young Ballerina

Mar 10, 2025

SPOKANE, Wash.—Kristy Hickman is a speech pathologist and her daughter, Genevieve, is studying ballet. After seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts, mother and daughter were in awe of the skill and precision of Shen Yun’s dancers.

“Very skilled. I saw a lot of acrobatics, flips, gymnastics,” Ms. Hickman said.

Shen Yun is based in New York and its dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance, one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world. Although gymnastics is a global sport, it actually originated from classical Chinese dance.

“Seeing Shen Yun just made me feel like I want to be like that and seeing how graceful they were with their body and how they could move—it just inspired me to keep doing ballet,” said Genevieve, who has been doing ballet since she was three years old.

Ballet incorporates a lot of spinning although the spins are different from classical Chinese dance. Genevieve was impressed with how Shen Yun’s artists were able to execute spins with ease.

“Even in their spins, they still held their body strong. They didn’t flip all around,” Genevieve said.

The costumes seen in Shen Yun are all expertly tailor-made and designed to match the fashion worn in different periods throughout the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

“They had all that material they were working with and didn’t trip on it and didn’t have any faultiness. It just amazes me. They must practice. I just would love to know how they train and how they practice and what that looks like,” Ms. Hickman said.

Shen Yun’s live orchestra is a unique combination of traditional Chinese instruments and a classic Western ensemble.

“I do have to say, especially with the orchestra playing live, my son plays orchestra, and it was very impressive to hear the music timed with the dancers and such accuracy and you know no mistakes in the music with the dancing. It was beautiful,” said Ms. Hickman, who used to play piano.

Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Ms. Hickman shared that she enjoyed seeing Shen Yun’s perspective of goodness and truth.

“We always love learning their perspective. We believe in a divine being. So we love the message to the world of peace and of being able to have your independence to believe what you want. ... So it was good to see that being shared,” she said.

Reporting by Lily Yu and Maria Han.

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