SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘Truly Spectacular’: New Yorkers Say Shen Yun Delivers ‘Love and Spirit’

Apr 05, 2025

4/5/2025Updated: 4/5/2025

NEW YORK CITY—Peter and June Donahue witnessed a beautiful spirit and message in Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“It was a feast for the eyes. It truly was spectacular. The talent was immense. I also love the message behind it,” said Mrs. Donohue after seeing the performance at Lincoln Center on April 4.

“I agree. I think the spirit of love and the spirit of God was just clearly there, right? And again, I agree, the beauty of the dance, and the spirit of the dance,” said Mr. Donohue, managing director of a bank.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Through music and dance, Shen Yun’s mission is to show audiences the beauty of China before communism.

“I didn’t realize how ancient the dance was and how it influences other cultures,” Mr. Donohue said. “It was very, very, very beautiful. I took a lot away from it.”

Mrs. Donohue said the dance and scenery had been beautiful, and together even more incredible. Instead of sets, Shen Yun’s backdrops made use of digital projection that brought the audience through 5,000 years and into myths and legends.

Mrs. Donohue added that the visual splendor had drawn her to the performance, and then she read that there was some controversy around Shen Yun—that the Chinese communist regime had wanted to stop the artists’ performances.

“This is a statement,” she said. Mrs. Donohue said she thought Shen Yun was fighting for freedom of belief, and the Donohues supported that wholeheartedly.

Traditional Chinese culture is a divinely inspired culture, which the Donohues felt came through the performance, pleasantly surprised by what they learned about the spirituality of ancient China.

Mr. Donohue thought Shen Yun, whose name translates as “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” aptly named.

“I think the message is really love and of spirit,” Mr. Donohue said. Mrs. Donohue agreed, saying that the show seemed to convey that “there’s a higher power.”

Even the addressing of religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime had been done in a beautiful way, showing that “there’s a better way.”

“There is definitely a message there behind all this about there is a better way in kindness,” Mr. Donohue added.

The Donohues learned through the performance about the spiritual discipline Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), which teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, as the Shen Yun artists are Falun Dafa practitioners and some have suffered religious persecution by the Chinese communist regime.

“I was a little surprised by some of the commonalities of my beliefs, my Christian beliefs, with what I was seeing on stage,” Mr. Donohue said, such as “the coming of the God ... and the spirit of love and kindness.”

The principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance certainly resonated with the Donohues.

“I love it, I love it, I love it,” Mr. Donohue said. “You know what? I think it’s very, very basic. And three major religions in the world will teach the same thing, that is. But if everybody believed that, the world would be a beautiful place. I mean, I think our Christian beliefs are based on the exact same things.”

Reporting by Frank Liang 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.