SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

‘I Love the Message’: Shen Yun Inspires Principal With Message of Freedom in Seattle

Apr 05, 2026

4/5/2026Updated: 4/5/2026

SEATTLE—Deep in her heart, Dr. Casey Barbara believes that freedom is like a precious jewel. So her values were fully validated by the dancers of Shen Yun Performing Arts as she watched them on Saturday play out the stories in their hearts at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

Sitting in the audience, Dr. Barbara, a school principal, watched the New York-based dance company with her mother as the performers expressed a passion to revive a culture that was “almost lost” during China’s cataclysmic cultural revolution in the 1960s. Communism persecuted the real Chinese culture of old, but these artists are now celebrating it around the world, where they are free to do so.

“I love the dancing, the aesthetics, the detail, the message of the show,” she told The Epoch Times in the theater after the show. “Oh, the costumes are amazing.”

Billed as “China before communism,” Shen Yun is bold about telling stories from the Middle Kingdom’s richly spiritual past. The stories are told without words through classical Chinese dance. The tale of creation opens with the first curtain rise, whereupon the Creator leads a team of deities to Earth to roll out 5,000 years of history. The show carries their journey forward with ancient myths and legends, ethnic dance, and modern tales that speak to the persecution of faith under atheistic communism.

“It’s interesting because I live in a country founded on freedom. And yet lately, it’s been a little hectic,” Dr. Barbara said, adding that she comes “from a history of persecution.”

“More people should come and see [Shen Yun], because the message is real. It’s current, it’s what we’re living every day, today, all of us,” she said. “Come see the show, embrace the message, and know that when you leave, you’re going to leave feeling differently. You’re going to leave feeling uplifted, renewed, and you’re going to leave feeling like, ‘Yes, I need to put my voice out there.’”

While Shen Yun is, no doubt, a marvel of production ingenuity—seamlessly merging ancient artistry with cutting-edge visual effects, while blending both classical and Chinese instruments in its live orchestra—the company’s message is one of passion.

Many of its performers are also Falun Dafa practitioners whose beliefs are persecuted in China, forcing them to flee to the United States, where they have freedom of thought. The show itself features scenes of a practitioner being abused and blinded by officers of the communist regime—all of which explains why Shen Yun is banned from performing in China today.

“I think there’s a message about freedom of belief and freedom to live in a country that values who you are, that values humanity,” Dr. Barbara said.

Her words of encouragement and praise for the artists of Shen Yun in raising awareness were joined by words from her mother, Marsha Myers.

“I love the show, absolutely love the show and feeling the joy and the freedom in the show,” Mrs. Myers said. “And I don’t think I could say anything any better than what my daughter has already said.”

Reporting by Echo Liu and Michael Wing.

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