SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun’s Portrayal Kindness and Tradition Was Beautiful, Says Utah Theatergoer

Mar 24, 2025

3/24/2025Updated: 3/24/2025

SALT LAKE CITY—On March 23, youth pastor Jared Moss and his mother, Kat Connolly, a math teacher, enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater. This was the duo’s first time seeing the show and they thought it was wonderful.

“It was beautiful. I loved the animation and the creativity, the costumes, the dance, the stories, the history. It was all very, very well done,” Ms. Connolly said. “They put a tear in my eye.”

The New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by elite Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the communist party.

For 5,000 years, China’s civilization flourished under the shared belief that the divine will bless those who uphold traditional moral values. Tragically, within just a few decades of the communist party’s violent takeover, these beliefs were erased and replaced with atheism.

The mission of these artists is to return to the world’s stage—the glory and beauty of China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.

As a Christian, Mr. Moss was deeply moved by the performers’ “expression and the value of their faith.”

“Their portrayal of that value, of kindness and tradition, was really nice,” he expressed.

Although the artists’ culture and faith differ from his own, Mr. Moss found many shared principles, such as “compassion and going back to the Creator.”

“It was all beautiful. Very well done,” he added.

Reflecting on Shen Yun’s mission to bring back spirituality in China, Mr. Moss said, “It’s good motivation to value that—to drive their faith and kindness and compassion for others [rather than] falling into the regime of what they had in communism. To be willing to still express that wherever they can, it’s a good message. I think that’s great.”

Ms. Connolly, too, was impressed by the story-based dances that told legends from ancient times to the modern-day. She thought the one recounting a scene from the Chinese literary classic, “Journey to the West,” was “very fun.”

The other piece that touched her was the dance raising awareness for the ongoing persecution of the people of faith by the Chinese Communist Party.

“I feel bad for the Chinese when they’re persecuted for their faith and that they’re not openly able to express that. That breaks my heart,” she said.

“When they presented [the practitioner] with all these temptations of the world, the man just did not give in. He stayed true to his faith and to what he was doing. So that was beautiful. He was rescued by the divine, he was healed. It was very well done. It was hopeful.”

If given the chance, Mr. Moss would like to tell all the performers, “They’re fantastic.”

“I was admiring how much training that must have involved and just admiring how much dedication that took,” he said. “The music was very well done and the singers—wow. Just gorgeous.”

Reporting by Mary Mann and Jennifer Tseng.

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