SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Shows ‘Soul of the Culture,’ Says Nursing Director

Apr 12, 2025

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

UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill.—Like many, Vilija Vaitkus had hoped to see Shen Yun Performing Arts for many years, and found more than expected when she finally saw it for herself.

“It’s beautiful. Yes, it is breathtaking, isn’t it? And the colors and the performance was beautiful. Just like never seen before,” said Ms. Vaitkus, a registered nurse and director of nursing for a health care company, after seeing Shen Yun at the Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University on April 11.

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

“That was so important to learn about Chinese history. We don’t learn about those things. And this is a beautiful representation of that. And the costumes were just exquisite,” Ms. Vaitkus said.

This included, she said, the Chinese people’s faith and “their deep devotion to God or to the Creator.” Traditional Chinese culture, considered a divinely inspired culture, was naturally spiritual, as the Chinese believed it was a gift from the heavens.

“It’s just, it was amazing. It was amazing. I really learned a lot, and I just enjoyed that,” Ms. Vaitkus added.

Ms. Vaitkus said there was a purity to the beauty that was hard to describe.

“I have no words. It’s exquisite. It’s beautiful. It is unique. It’s very unique. And it is pure. Yes, it is. And the stories are just very, like it’s innocent,” she said.

Ms. Vaitkus explained that there was tragedy and even stories that touched on difficult topics like the real and current religious persecution of people of faith by the communist regime in China, but the way Shen Yun handled it was still beautiful.

Those stories brought out “the kindness of the souls of the people, you know, of the culture.”

“You can see the kindness of the soul of the culture, from the dances, from the stories,” she said. “And there’s evil everywhere in the world, there’s people that want to stop these things all over the world, but this is—this told the story very well. And it tells the story of the goodness of people, and the purity of people, and the kind souls that they have.”

This all came through the artists’ expression on stage, she said.

“It’s their expression. They’re telling stories through art, they’re telling the story of your country, of their heritage through the art of dancing, through singing, through the music,“ she said. ”It just brings it all alive, and the animation in the background and all of that was just incredible.”

“I just would recommend everybody seeing it because it is just incredible. From an art perspective, from a humanity perspective, from a history perspective, all of that together is just beautiful,” she said.

Reporting by Sherry Dong 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.