SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘Very Lovely and Relaxing to Watch,’ Says Project Manager

Mar 17, 2025

3/17/2025Updated: 3/17/2025

BALTIMORE—Roberta Sola, a project manager, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee performance at The Hippodrome Theatre on March 16 with her husband and mother-in-law. Ms. Sola said that she and her husband had purchased the tickets as a Christmas present for her mother-in-law, who had “very much wanted to see the show.”

“I thought it was visually very beautiful,” Ms. Sola said. “The nature of Chinese dance is very graceful and elegant, so it was very lovely and relaxing to watch.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception, Shen Yun has expanded from one to eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously, reviving traditional Chinese culture and showcasing the beauty of “China before communism.”

When the atheist Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, it tried to destroy traditional Chinese culture, which is deeply rooted in spirituality. Shen Yun depicts these spiritual elements that have almost been lost, and for this reason it is not allowed to perform in China.

“Why would you not be practicing your traditional dance and celebrating your heritage and ethnic background,” Ms. Sola asked before adding that the life of the Chinese people before communism “looked beautiful and very in tune with nature and their spirituality.”

“So if that doesn’t exist today, what it was before was really beautiful,” she said.

Shen Yun’s program includes songs performed in the traditional bel canto style. Ms. Sola felt that the singing “was lovely, especially with the piano accompaniment” and that “the integration of the dancing and the singing was a nice variety.”

Ms. Sola said she was impressed with the dancers’ techniques.

“The acrobatics are amazing,” she said. “The athleticism of the dancers is really impressive. I think I gravitate more towards the women’s traditional dance because the costumes are so beautiful and it’s just kind of fantasy.”

Reporting by Jenny Jing 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.