SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Performing Arts Is ‘Mesmerizing,’ Says Former Dancer

Apr 12, 2025

4/12/2025Updated: 4/13/2025

VANCOUVER—Among the captivated audience members at Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening show on April 12, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre was a couple celebrating their one-year anniversary.

Former dancer Yuliia Matvieva and her boyfriend, Jason Bennett, who works at Boeing, were deeply moved by the experience.

“I’ve been waiting for this show for a while, and it’s absolutely speechless and mesmerizing. I have been totally blown away,” Ms. Matvieva exclaimed.

“Thank you so much [to Shen Yun] for a wonderful time. They put together such a wonderful show and I would like to come back and see it again.”

According to the company’s website, the name ‘Shen Yun” translates directly into “the beauty of divine beings dancing.”

Based in New York, these artists are masters of classical Chinese dance, an ancient and highly expressive art form dating back thousands of years. Unlike the modern, military-influenced styles often seen in China today, Shen Yun preserves and performs this tradition in its most authentic form, as it was originally passed down through generations.

As a fellow dancer, Ms. Matvieva was doubly impressed by the performers’ skill.

Their talent was “absolutely speechless, and they were beautiful actors, beautiful dancers. Flexibility is amazing and plasticity. This show was super professional,” she expressed.

“I think [to put together] this whole thing would probably take years. The synchronicity—how they would move at the same time—it was phenomenal, absolutely.”

For 5,000 years, China’s civilization flourished under the shared belief that the divine will bless those who uphold traditional moral values. Tragically, within just a few decades of the communist party’s violent takeover, these beliefs were erased and replaced with atheism.

The mission of Shen Yun is to return to the world’s stage—the glory and beauty of China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.

Ms. Matvieva loved the traditional values the artists conveyed.

“The story was very interesting and profound. [There’s] a lot to think about,” she explained.

The performance was “profound because a lot of the topics [were] about life in general, about things that matter in life—values, priorities, and things we need to focus on— not just on ourself, on something that is deeper than the shell of flesh, more than just the skin and the body, but the soul inside of us.”

The message she will be bringing home with her is that “we should probably look wider… people shouldn’t be selfish and [should] help others like it showed in the show—really, truly look for the meaning in life.”

Ms. Matvieva would like to tell everyone that Shen Yun “was a big combination of hard work and effort that each one of [the performers] has put into it.”

“It’s more than just the creativity, but a message to the world about people connecting with this outside source of life, which is God,” she said.

“It’s wonderful how, through this beautiful performance, we can show God, and I hope that everybody who watches the show—they will turn their hearts to God.”

Reporting by Lily Yu 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.