SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Shows ‘Dance in Its Highest Respect,’ Says Art Teacher

Mar 23, 2025

3/23/2025Updated: 3/24/2025

LONG BEACH, Calif.—Holly Clarke, an art teacher, thought Shen Yun Performing Arts was truly high art, as the artists had shown them something that was more than entertainment or just something sensational.

“It’s wholesome you know, I love seeing like dance in its highest respect and that’s what I feel like the show is doing,” said Ms. Clarke, who attended the March 23 matinee at the Terrace Theater with her daughter and several family members after her mother got tickets for everyone as a surprise.

“It’s dance treated as the art form that it really is,” she said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company. Through music and dance, Shen Yun’s mission is to show audiences the beauty of China before communism.

“The costumes are beautiful and so graceful. All of the dancers and the music are absolutely magnificent,” Ms. Clarke said. “The techniques, you know, are so difficult, but they look like they’re floating on air. They’re so graceful.”

Ms. Clarke said it was beautiful to see the costumes, dance, and technique celebrated as art, and these various elements came together harmoniously.

“The costumes are beautifully, artfully done, the dancers are actually artists themselves, and all of it flows together in balance with each other, one not more than the other,” she said. “And I think when it’s art, it speaks for itself. And they’re using it in a respectful way; respecting that it is an art, and acknowledging that it is an art.”

Lorenza Passarella (L) and her family members enjoyed Shen Yun at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California, on March 23, 2025. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times) — Lorenza Passarella (L) and her family members enjoyed Shen Yun at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California, on March 23, 2025. Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times

Elsewhere in the theater, Lorenza Passarella was also seeing Shen Yun with several members of her family, and deeply appreciative of the classical art they had discovered.

“We’re three generations here. My daughter and her daughter, which is my granddaughter,” Ms. Passarella said. She shared her family background—Italian, German, Mexican, and that the many dance styles the cultures correspond to that her children perform as well.

“It’s a fabulous show. The colors, everything, just beautiful. Everything that they’ve done, the music, everything,” Ms. Passarella said, adding that her only regret is that they had not attended the performance earlier so that her mother, who passed five years ago, could experience this as well.

With a daughter in the performing arts, Ms. Passarella said she knew how much time and dedication went into the performance they saw, and the hours and years behind each dance and scene.

“So we, as a family, we appreciate it, and we’re very thankful that we had the opportunity to come and see it today,” she said.

Shen Yun uplifted Ms. Passarella in many ways, including through a message of peace and kindness, she said.

“What we need now is peace in our world,” she said. “there’s a lot to embrace, you know, and see. And just be thankful for everybody’s culture. There’s so much to share ... peace, harmony, love, you know, be kind, considerate, understand one another and respect and, you know, just respect one another.

“That’s what life is, to do things like that. And stop the hostility, stop everything that is going on today. And it’s beautiful to see a show like this,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Reporting by Linda Jiang and Catherine Yang.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.