SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Uplifts the Soul, Says Company Director

Jan 12, 2025

LONDON—Shen Yun Performing Arts enchanted the audience at the Eventim Apollo on Jan. 12. John Lange, a company director who works in the film industry, said Shen Yun took him on a round trip to a higher realm.

“I thought the choreography and the music, and just the whole immersive experience being in the audience was mesmerizing. It kind of transports you into another world—absolutely. I think it takes you from this world into a spiritual one and back again,” he said.

Shen Yun is based in New York, and its mission is to revive “China before communism”—the 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture from the traditional Chinese civilization.

Mr. Lange was asked which dances he enjoyed. “There were several but I think it was the one with the women of grace, with the long sleeves. That was beautiful.”

Many thoughts flooded Mr. Lange as he watched the performance. “I just felt just the power of the dance,” he said, “to be able to enable you to meditate and to think of your place here in this world, but also connected to other worlds.

“I think it’s a kind of uplifting of the soul. I think you connect with all of humanity but also to know that there’s so much more than just this world, and that there are values—there is something else which connects us, call it the divine, but something much greater that we are part of.

“I think this is part of the message which is coming across through the performance and through the spectacle. And so it makes you think more widely,” he said.

In the opening scene when the heavens open and then the Creator comes down, Mr. Lange said, “I think you feel this sense of spiritual well-being and energy, it goes from the performers to the audience. I think you feel it sweeping through you.”

As well as its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture, Shen Yun’s message is that traditional moral values can bring people together in modern society.

“I think it’s a universal message. I think it’s something that anyone and everyone can, if they’re open, be able to relate to. I think that’s what it does. I think it helps to open you, to feel,” he said.

Mr. Lange enjoyed the live orchestra with its unique combination of Eastern and Western instruments.

“I think it’s really important to have a live orchestra,” he said. “I think real music just adds to the performance.”

Shen Yun features an animated 3D backdrop that assists the dancers with their storytelling.

“The interplay [of the dancers with the backdrop], of course, but also the intensity of the colors, and combined with the costumes, which are beautifully designed, creates the production,” he said.

Mr. Lange said he treated himself to the performance. “A very good friend of mine who is a great supporter of Shen Yun [suggested this], and this is my birthday treat. I can’t think of a better way of doing it,” he said.

Reporting by Jenna and Yvonne Marcotte

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