SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Unusually Wonderful,’ Enriching, Says Art Organization Founder

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Shen Yun ‘Unusually Wonderful,’ Enriching, Says Art Organization Founder
Denise Domergue and Diane Lawrence and enjoyed Shen Yun at The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, 2025. The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—Denise Domergue, former longtime director of the American Institute for Conservation and now founder of a nonprofit art organization, found something exceptional in seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“I felt like I really, I really imbibed something that was that was unusually wonderful,  worth every minute. And I just feel enriched,” Ms. Domergue said after seeing Shen Yun at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Jan. 17. Ms. Domergue attended the performance with her friend, Diane Lawrence, who has studied traditional Chinese culture and history, and was familiar with the deeply spiritual nature of the 5,000-year-old civilization.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to present on stage China before communism, a civilization its people believed divinely inspired.
Ms. Lawrence said she could see the values of this traditional culture throughout the performance and in the artists.

“The emphasis on kindness,” she said.

Ms. Lawrence said the stories in Shen Yun not only spanned history and legend, including an episode from one of her favorites, “Journey to the West,” but even included a story-based dance set in communist China.

In it, Chinese people reconnect with their spiritual nature, including a character that had previously fallen in with the Communist Party, she said, and it had happened because people had appealed to his kindness.

“I loved it,” she said. “I liked a lot of things about it, but especially the introduction of different aspects of the Chinese culture.”

Ms. Lawrence and Ms. Domergue said they enjoyed the innovative production, with an animated backdrop that dancers seemingly disappeared into before reappearing in the backdrop or back on stage. From their balcony seats, they were able to look down into the orchestra pit and glimpse the ancient Chinese instruments mixed in with the rest of the familiar, classical ones.

“Just the skills were really, really impressive, and it was fun to see a real live orchestra,” Ms. Lawrence said. “Everything was so perfect and coordinated. We especially liked the person jumping down and then coming up on the screen; that was really clever, the backdrops.”

Ms. Domergue agreed, adding that “the backdrops were absolutely stunning.”

While Ms. Lawrence had studied Confucianism and ancient Chinese classics like the “Book of Changes,” Ms. Domergue said much of what she was learning about Chinese culture was new to her.

“I just thought it was beautiful and exciting, you know?” she said. “It was so just inspiring everything and the music, everything, I loved it. I’ve never been so immersed in a Chinese cultural event than this.”

“I was delighted,” she said. “I’m so grateful that I came.”

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