SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘A Celebration of the Human Spirit’: Entertainment Marketing Professional

Jan 13, 2025

MIAMI—After seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts’ trailers over and over again online, actually seeing the performance was, in the words of Thornell Jones, Jr., “top of mind.” Thus, he found himself attending Shen Yun’s matinee performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 12. Mr. Jones has worked in the entertainment marketing industry for over two decades, and has represented Grammy Award winners.

“The show was remarkable,” Mr. Jones said. “The troupe was absolutely world-class. The precision of the choreography, the costuming, the storytelling, it was all really, really remarkable.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception in 2006, Shen Yun’s mission has been to revive traditional Chinese culture and present the beauty of China before communism.

A big fan of orchestral music, Mr. Jones enjoyed listening to the music performed by Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments.

“The wonderful mix of Western instruments and Eastern instruments, traditional Chinese instruments, was definitely ear candy,” he said.

He also said he appreciated the choreography.

“The choreography was remarkable. ... It was a refreshing look at traditional dance that I’ve actually never seen before.”

Shen Yun’s opening number depicts divine beings following the Creator down to Earth to establish human civilization. Mr. Jones felt that the scene was “very much in alignment” with his own spiritual beliefs.

“We are ... spiritual beings having a human experience,” he said.

Through the millennia, “people and their spiritual and physical needs are all the same, and many of the traditional stories are the same worldwide,“ he said, reflecting on the performance. ”[Shen Yun] was a celebration of the human spirit regardless of the specifics of it being based in traditional Chinese history.”

Reporting by Linda Jiang 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.