Touring over 150 cities and selling out shows across the globe, Shen Yun Performing Arts successfully closed the curtain on their 2024 season. The New York-based dance company gives theatergoers a glimpse into 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture, attracting audience members from all walks of life. Audience members called the experience “educational” to see China before communism.
Robert Brandzen, founder and chair of Fathers Truly Matter, said, “What I really liked the most is that we were able to see through the veil of communism to the beauty that is China and that was really really refreshing to see. What I saw was love, peace, and hope, and a future of man, maybe inspiring America not to go down those steps.”
Michaela Eckhardt, award-winning Austrian haute couture designer, said, “The performance is intoxicating. It’s amazing. The colors of the show are perfect for me. If you are there, you can feel the excitement, it’s like a dream. I think it is amazing.”
Wolfgang Güssgen, sales manager for a European software company, said, “I must say the performance made me think and made me feel that China is much more friendly and positive, compared to what I usually hear from others and what I see now in real life.”
Sascha Soriat, CEO of an Austrian real estate company, said, “It’s great and impressive. The tradition behind [the performance] is thousands of years of tradition, and the lightness is so beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The colors and dance movements are very fascinating. It will make people smile unconsciously.”
Jin-woo Lee, president of the Korean International Rescue Agency, said, “I felt that Shen Yun embodies justice by pursuing traditional values. Upholding tradition and justice is the mission, and it’s very much alive. I hope these values can be shared with the world.”
Shen Yun’s performances tell stories of China’s vast history that spreads across dynasties leading up to present day communist China and their persecution of faith groups such as Falun Gong, whose spiritual practice follows the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Mr. Lee added, “Falun Gong practitioners speak out for the truth, but are obscured by darkness. This is a very regrettable reality. I hope this fact and the truth can be known to the outside world again.”
Yoseline Torres, founder of TruFood Solutions, said, “There was one part about the traditions, meditation, the meditation tradition and how those are still persecuted these days in China. And the whole story, it almost made me get in tears. It was very touching and very real.”
Audience members also took home universal values from the performance such as freedom, hope, and choosing goodness.
Donald Glascoff, a documentary filmmaker, said, “The storyline shows achieving in the face of adverse situations, not being cowed by evil authority, many storylines that are important to me. … Independence, freedom, personal liberty, belief systems, and movement are all important.”
Gerald Wallens, the founder of Higher Standard Group, said, “I think the message is that there is hope and light for people to change. Every message through the performance was there’s a war between good and evil and it’s best to choose the good and everything comes forth from that as a good thing, which I love.”
NTD News, New York
