SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Performers Display ‘The Joy of Living,’ Says Actor

Apr 06, 2024

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Actor Rob Dean and his friend Ivar Johnson thoroughly enjoyed the first of Shen Yun’s four consecutive shows at the Dolby Theatre on April 5.

In the lobby at the evening’s conclusion, Mr. Dean couldn’t stop praising the artists.

“My God. [They’re] superhumans as far as I’m concerned,” he exclaimed.

“Despite [the show’s] spectacular nature, the dancers themselves make us come to them. They [just perform] and what [their movements] mean—we look at and we decide. They don’t force it; that’s saying a lot.”

“Whenever a performance makes me come to them, I’m always thinking, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ That’s about the best you can hope for when you go to a theater,” he said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s top classical Chinese dance and music company.

In addition to solo performances and folk dances inspired by the various regions of China, the artists present short story-based dances that tell tales from ancient times to the modern day.

This season, the company is slated to perform in over 200 cities worldwide. They can be expected to return with a brand-new set of music and choreography every year.

Their mission is to restore China’s 5,000 years of divine-inspired beauty and traditions that were lost during the decades of communist rule.

A stage performer himself, Mr. Dean understood firsthand the hard work that’s necessary to pull off a show like this.

“I’ve been on stage many, many, many times and the concentration it must take to make everything exactly perfect without making it look like a slog … because they look like they’re having an actual good time,” he said.

“That’s hard when they’re doing this for years. A long run in a play is usually considered death because you just wind up doing the same thing every night, and you’re not thinking anymore. So, the audience is left behind a little bit. That doesn’t happen here.”

Referring to Shen Yun’s story-based dance bringing attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution and illegal organ harvest from the people of faith in China, Mr. Dean said, “It really got me.”

“I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s not what I expected, but what’s important is that [the people] stop being persecuted. I can see under the whole show that there’s a yearning,” he explained.

“The heart in the organ box, the forced organ harvesting—I’m really glad it’s [presented] here, and everybody’s seeing it because I don’t think a lot of people actually believe it. It’s hard to believe that there’s such evil.”

Mr. Dean said he saw “the joy of living” in Shen Yun’s performance and that’s something very difficult to achieve.

“It takes a lot of serious effort, so that in itself is spiritual to me. The [performers] are so perfect, they’re so in step. The show is on a higher calling; there is a higher purpose to it and everyone is attached to it. I didn’t know that, and now I do,” he stated.

“I really, really respect the spirituality coming off the stage in massive waves because to be this devoted to an art form that is rooted in the past is a spiritual exercise in itself.”

Reporting by Linda Jiang 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.