ORANGE PARK, Fla.—Media executive Luis Goicouria and high school teacher Darla March were both deeply impressed by Shen Yun Performing Arts after attending the company’s second show at the Thrasher-Horne Center in Orange Park on Jan. 29.
“It’s truly remarkable. And I’m really impressed with all the techniques and the level of energy. And it’s beautiful,” Ms. March said.
“I think the dancers are incredibly well synchronized. The use of the costumes and a lot of the ethnic dances bring light to the fact that there’s a lot of diversity and very different culture inside of China. I also think that they’re incredibly light on their feet. You don’t hear any hard landing. You see remarkable technique with spins and everything else so it’s very, very impressive.”
Shen Yun was established in 2006 and is 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 was almost destroyed by decades of communist rule.
For its 2025 touring season, Shen Yun’s eight equally sized companies are scheduled to perform in over 200 cities worldwide.
As someone very familiar with media and theatrical production, Mr. Goicouria thought every aspect of Shen Yun was beautiful and “very nicely done.”
The dancers’ technique is “incredible. I mean I’m amazed by their skill. Graceful and powerful and beautiful.”
“Beautiful costumes, beautiful dancing, very graceful—really enjoying it,” he said, adding that he appreciated Shen Yun’s bilingual hosts, who provide a brief introduction before each performance.
This, combined with Shen Yun’s 3D animated backdrop, helps the audience grasp the stories clearly, even if they’re not familiar with Chinese culture.
“It’s great. The choreography is beautiful, and I like that they explain what you’re going to see, what the story is behind it. I think the graphics behind are beautiful as well and very well incorporated into the whole production.”
Mr. Goicouria also loved the live orchestra and the traditional Chinese melodies that accompanied the dances.
“I think the orchestra sounds beautiful. … They played fantastic,” he said, adding that the music was beautiful and layered, and accompanied the dancing perfectly.
Using classical Western orchestration as the foundation, the company’s original compositions highlight traditional Chinese instruments such as the two-stringed erhu and the pipa—an ancient Chinese lute. Bringing to its audience the best of both worlds.
Reflecting on the company’s mission to bring back traditional Chinese culture and showcase China before communism, Mr. Goicouria said he “enjoyed it very much.”
“It’s very different from anything I’ve seen. And I like to experience other cultures. And that’s one of my favorite parts about it, is learning something new,” he explained.
“I learned a little bit about history and the culture and some of the stories that were told, the dancing and [that’s] something very different from our culture.”
Ms. March added that she was “very impressed with the cultural and the spiritual aspects” of Shen Yun and hoped that the students studying Chinese at her school would have the opportunity to see the performance because it brought a lot of culture to Florida.
