ORLANDO, Fla.—Dr. Kimberley Dos Santos attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on March 18. Dr. Dos Santos is the principal at Poinciana Academy of Fine Arts.

Dr. Dos Santos gave a positive impression of her second time seeing Shen Yun. “It was amazing! This is my second time seeing it, and I was still amazed and wowed by everything that they did.”

There were many things that she enjoyed. “I just really loved the storyline with all of the dances, and then just the fantastic performances that they put on the choreography is amazing,” she said.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture.

With her background in arts education, Dr. Dos Santos noticed Shen Yun’s level of artistry. “Excellent! Their artists are wonderful! The colors are very vibrant and so it makes you really feel like you’re in this setting.”

“I do feel like the backdrops with the colors, [it] really does help to tell the story and set the scene for every one of their performances,” she said. “They do a phenomenal job with the props and then making you feel that you are a part of that story where they’re really interacting with each other with the props.”

She was especially impressed by how the performance flowed together. “As far as with the digital integration with the arts that they do with the dance, the choreography, the acting, and the storyline, it’s just a really well put together piece—it’s very well put together.”

“The storyline really flows,” Dr. Dos Santos said. “And it tells a lot of different history that makes you feel like you are part of the character, like you can feel what the characters are feeling through their actions.”

“The backdrops were really excellent,“ she said. ”And I love how they change very seamlessly as well, from one setting to another with ease, and the characters jumping into the picture and flying off and coming back in, it’s all very timed very well.”

In her estimation, the music was an added plus. “I like the music very well; they are very talented musicians, and I love the variety of instruments that are offered as well.”

Dr. Dos Santos said the dancers had excellent technique. “It was very very excellent. The technique: flawless. As far as the technique and skill, and I know they said it wasn’t acrobatic, but you could see the hands-free movements where they’re doing flips and cartwheels, and things like that. It takes a lot of work and they make it look like it’s so easy.”

Dr. Dos Santos liked the focus on traditional values. “The tradition and the values, like being peaceful and really having that be a center in your life, with the meditation and things like that, they really brought that to the forefront by showing how we can work together and be a peaceful community,” she said.

Shen Yun had great educational value, according to Dr. Dos Santos. “It’s very educational because it gives you a lot of input on their society that you might not know, us being Americans, and we don’t know a lot about China, so it brings that history into it and also the different values.”

“The show is really uplifting, vibrant, really takes you to another place and is very enjoyable, like you feel like you are transported into the story with the characters.”