SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Something Really, Really Special,’ Says Network Designer

Feb 19, 2025

NORTHAMPTON, UK—Garry Frost had done some work in China previously and had an interest in the culture, which led him to find Shen Yun Performing Arts. Initially, he hadn’t realized that Shen Yun was based in New York, but after seeing the performance he understood why.

“Wow, what you’ve got is something really, really special,” said Mr. Frost after seeing Shen Yun at the Royal & Derngate on Feb. 18. This was his second time seeing the performance, and had amazed him just as much as the first time.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Through music and dance, Shen Yun aims to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, sharing with audiences the beauty of China before communism.

Mr. Frost, now retired, used to design networks for companies, and that work took him all around the world, including China and Hong Kong. Seeing how Hong Kong lost freedom after the Chinese Communist Party tightened its grip on the previously self-governing territory in recent years, Mr. Frost said he had a sense of what the communist oppression in China would be like.

“It’s really sad that they do away with their history and they shouldn’t. Because it’s a culture and it’s fantastic,” Mr. Frost said. As such, he found Shen Yun’s mission “absolutely fantastic” and cheered them on.

“I can’t imagine anyone could come here and not be impressed. That’s the truth of it,” he said.

Mr. Frost expressed his admiration for the artists, in terms of both dedication and talent. From the way the dancers were able to hold poses that required stunning balance as if effortless, to the way they seamlessly interacted with the animated backdrop to allow characters to move from the earth to heavens, all of these could only have been accomplished with “a huge amount of practice,” he surmised.

“To actually bend your foot up and nearly touch the back of your head, come on. I just couldn’t really believe I was seeing what I was seeing,” he said. “They made it look simple. But it’s extremely hard. ... Dedication. Sheer dedication.”

“And I looked at the schedule they'd be doing in the UK and ... it’s really hard,” he added. This year is one of Shen Yun’s largest yet, with eight groups performing around 800 performances within five months.

“I mean, what you’re doing here is, it’s unbelievable,” Mr. Frost said.

Between the dancing, backdrop, and the music, the performance brought out a range of emotions, he said, and was all really very clever.

“I'd recommend it to anybody,” Mr. Frost said.

Reporting by NTD 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.