SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Inventor Appreciates Artistry in Shen Yun

Feb 01, 2026

2/1/2026Updated: 2/2/2026

BOURNEMOUTH, UK—Patrick Gilbert found Shen Yun Performing Arts awe-inspiring at the Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre on Feb. 1. An inventor, Mr. Gilbert said Shen Yun was visually overwhelming.

He was filled with many emotions. “I realize there’s an impact on a non-conscious level because I found it very tear-provoking as well. Whilst my mind is thinking its thoughts, I also appreciated that the artistry and the synchronicity of the whole performance is phenomenal,” he said.

Mr. Gilbert said, “I appreciate how difficult it must be to make a show like that, that can get through to everybody.”

Mr. Gilbert connected with Shen Yun’s effort to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture from “China before communism” and said it was very emotional.

“It does bring tears, and it’s affecting me in an emotional way, which isn’t logical. Because maybe I have a sense of the truth that it’s alluding to, and it’s very moving to see [the truth] being acknowledged and represented in such a serious, deep, and concerted, helpful way. I’m kind of connecting with the artists,” he said.

Traditional Chinese civilization is filled with millennia of stories and legends that carry spiritual and moral messages for humanity. Mr. Gilbert connected with the lessons.

“I definitely connect with the message that what we can perceive now is a scarce remnant of what must have been reality for so long. So much of it is lost or hidden or destroyed,” he said. “That is moving as well—to know what could have been and what has been in the past.”

“The history of humanity is beyond our imagination,” Mr. Gilbert said. “What we can only do is try to reconjure up an impression of it. The depths must be incomprehensible of our human story.”

Mr. Gilbert said he enjoyed many of the stories dramatized in dance. He was amazed at the opening scene where the Creator comes to earth with other divine beings to save humanity.

The ‘Ladies Manchurian Ethnic Dance’ was a highlight, “when the [dancers] were walking on stilts, (known as flower pot shoes), because it was the combination of that very subtle, gentle, swaying movement, as well as the more extravagant movements,” he said.

Shen Yun dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance in Fei Tian Academy in Upstate New York, and Mr. Gilbert appreciated the skill required to attain that level.

He said how much he “liked the subtle movement: the slow and the graceful, as well as the swift and the fast.”

He was unsure of how to voice his appreciation of the dancers and all of Shen Yun’s performers. “I don’t know how I could express [this], but deep gratitude I would have and admiration,” he said.

“I don’t know what I could offer them but appreciation—very appreciative. I think it takes a lifetime to do what they do, and it’s dedication.

“I think the level, the achievement of their performance is beyond the scale. It’s hard to really fully appreciate from a normal person’s point of view and experience.”

Reporting by Jenna Zhan and Yvonne Marcotte.

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