‘I Was Blown Away by the Joy,’ Said Artist After Shen Yun

March 7, 2023

Artists who watched Shen Yun Performing Arts in Billings, Montana, appreciated the performers’ precision.

“The balance, the perfection, the unity, and the ways that they danced was stunning to me. The colors, the beauty. The way that the performers would jump off the stage and come up on the screen! That was just amazing,” said Andy Landis-Halingstad, a writer. “And the colors of the water and the flowers that you have in the show is just incredible. The dancers were just superb, every single one of them. I watched their faces, and I was blown away by the joy that they—and they have to be tired by the end. I was thinking they had to be tired. But they were joyous.”

“I just love the music. The dancing is fabulous,” said Almeda Bradshaw, a singer-songwriter. “I’ll tell you, the orchestration and the choreography is amazing. I just really think it’s so worth seeing it, and I’ve been waiting to see it for a long time because I have known about it for probably four or five years now. And this is my first opportunity to see it here in Billings, Montana, to see it for the first time.”

“I love history, and so much of what we learned in the show, we didn’t know,” said Mr. Landis-Halingstad. “And [Shen Yun] also brought to the present some of the things that are happening in China that we really need to know about, which was so brave.”

Under China’s communist regime, some people are persecuted for their faith. Shen Yun showcases some of that on stage, along with its mission to revive 5,000 years of the divinely-inspired traditional culture.

“I understand completely what’s happened in China with the Communist Party, and so I understand what you [Shen Yun] are trying to do, get the word out, get the message across that there is persecution there and … communism in and of itself is not the answer to how we are going to be as human beings on this planet,” said Ms. Bradshaw.

“I was very impressed with the fact that they were focusing on good and evil. … And it showed a lot of beauty, which is from the Creator,” said Bruce Rogers, a membership representative with the National Federation of Independent Business.

“Because beauty is of the Creator, and the evil creates ugliness—And when they separate, you see, when you see the good, you can see the evil. When you see good, you know you’re looking at God,” he added.

Audience members believe Shen Yun leaves an important message for the future.

“The younger generation has to know where they come from, and what can be,” said Mr. Rogers. “All they can see right now is what they’re living, but they don’t know where they came from. And they don’t know what’s possible. They can’t see what their history has been. So if they can see the beauty of their culture, they can see a future, a possible future.”

“We can’t erase culture, we can’t erase history. We have to learn from it,” said Ms. Bradshaw. “So I am just really, really excited and pleased to be able to experience and actually seeing what Shen Yun is trying to do, to spread the message across the world, so thank you.”

“The reason I came to see Shen Yun is because I wanted to see what China was before communism, because there was no other way for me to see what China was before communism,” said Mr. Rogers. “And this, Shen Yun is bringing that to the public. And I’m very thankful for that.”

Shen Yun performs in Southern California, Florida, and Colorado next.

NTD News, Billings, Montana