COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Carlos Sanabria, a retired project manager for GE, was impressed with the incredible precision he saw in Shen Yun Performing Arts, describing how the dancers would jump and move with split second accuracy in time with a digital backdrop that made it look as if they were diving into water, or flying into the skies.
“The choreography is very incredible. It’s very, very nice. And the music is really pretty,” said Mr. Sanabria, who attended Shen Yun at the Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 28 with his wife Renee Sanabria.
New York-based 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.
Not knowing much about Chinese culture before seeing the performance, Mr. Sanabria found the program informative and entertaining, enjoying the stories from across 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
“It’s very good,” he said. “It makes you think about life, you know? It makes you think about ... the spiritual.”
Alex and Jessica Schluppenbaum enjoyed Shen Yun at the Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 28, 2025. Sonia Wu/The Epoch Times
Also seeing the evening’s performance were the Schluppenbaums, who said they found that spirituality interestingly universal.
“I was very interested in, as a Christian, seeing that there was a very similar theory in the Falun Gong religion, you know, as far as faith goes,” said Jessica Schluppenbaum, a personal trainer and nutrition coach. “I’m a very strong proponent for freedom of religion, and so I think it’s fantastic that this show is going on and spreading everywhere.”
Alex Schluppenbaum, a pilot, also found the reference to Falun Gong particularly interesting. Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a peaceful spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999, a key reason Shen Yun is banned by the regime from performing in China.
Falun Gong teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, and a story-based dance vignette in the program showed the courage and faith of these practitioners in modern-day China despite the persecution.
Mr. Schluppenbaum said this silencing of dissent and faith by communist regimes was “the most evil ideology that the world has ever seen,” and he was encouraged to see that Shen Yun helped spread such awareness.
“I think it’s a beautiful presentation. It’s very interesting how the show blended Chinese history with current times as well,” he said.
Mrs. Schluppenbaum said the performance had presented both ancient and modern China beautifully.
“I think it is beautiful. The visual setting is just so spectacular. The dance and the flow of the movement, very stunning,” she said. “I love how [Shen Yun] included in the show the persecution that’s happening that I think so many Americans aren’t really paying attention to. And it’s very important that we pay attention to it. So I think it’s fantastic.”
