SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Business Owner Says Shen Yun Presents What Society Is Missing

Mar 08, 2026

3/8/2026Updated: 3/8/2026

LAS VEGAS—Dani Kear, business owner of a construction company, came back to see Shen Yun Performing Arts for another year at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas on March 7, 2026.

Her fourth time seeing Shen Yun since the company debuted in 2006, she said that its “beautiful [and] culturally enlightening.”

“What I love about it is every year it’s a little different … but it’s the same general theme,” she said.

For those who haven’t yet seen Shen Yun or don’t understand what the performance is about, she said: “People who come for the first time are usually very surprised because the message is very different than just a ballet.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Along with folk dances and solo performances, the production depicts story-based pieces that tell tales from ancient times to the present day.

According to the company’s website, the performance consists of 20 pieces that move “from one legend, region, or dynasty to the next.” They present heroes in story-based dances that embody the most exalted virtues of Chinese civilization, morals still relevant today.

“That is something that all of society is missing,” Ms. Kear said, “Everybody is really about themselves … very selfish, … we mire ourselves down in earthly things instead of things that are good and kind and gentle and lovely and pure.”

Aside from the beautiful dancing and a live orchestra that blends traditional Chinese instruments with a classical Western orchestra, Ms. Kear keeps coming back to support Shen Yun’s mission to revive traditional Chinese culture.

The ancient culture came close to death under the tyranny of communism since the seizure of power by the Chinese communist party (CCP) in 1949. Shen Yun says its performance thus demonstrates “China before communism,” and they also shed light on the current persecutions happening in the country today.

“I love the dancing parts, but I also like the truth of what’s happening politically in China,” Mrs. Kear said, “I like the people expressing their views.”

Shen Yun presents story-based dances portraying the persecution of Falun Dafa, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In 1999, the CCP launched a persecution campaign against the spiritual practice, which is also called Falun Gong, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.

“I think it’s kind of why I keep coming back because … I think all humans desire to be free—free from oppression and free to have ideas and free to study what they want,” she said.

“I think it’s just the human struggle to do what is right and to know that this is a very short part of our lives,” she added, “eternity is a very long time.”

“I invite everybody to go see it,” she said.

Reporting by Michael Ye and Jennifer Schneider.

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