SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Photographer Sees Shen Yun Every Year for Nearly 15 Years

Dec 27, 2024

12/27/2024Updated: 12/27/2024

HOUSTON—When photographer Rene Lktrejo says Shen Yun Performing Arts is a “can’t miss” show, he says he really means it.

“I come every year. I’ve been doing it for the last, I would say, 15 years,” Mr. Lktrejo said on Dec. 26 at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts.

“I gotta be here every year,” he said. “It was always something different, and I enjoy it ... and for sure, we'll come back next year.”

Founded in 2006, New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. It has since grown to eight equal-sized companies that each tour the world every season, presenting 5,000 years of Chinese civilization to now roughly 1 million audience members annually.

“I wish everybody could come and see this great performance,” said Mr. Lktrejo. He says he’s brought many different people to the performances, wanting to share the experience.

He was impressed with how Shen Yun produces an all-new production each season. The artists have five millennia of stories to draw from and create new choreography, compositions, cinematic scenery, and couture costumes to go along with it.

Every Shen Yun production includes roughly a dozen vignettes, including classical Chinese dance, story-based dances, ethnic and folk dances from China’s 50-plus ethnic minorities and regions, solo bel canto performances, and more.

Underlying everything is traditional Chinese culture, a divinely inspired culture, that prizes the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness.

“I’ve been here so many years, and every show, and every time, it’s different. Different great performance from every single one of them,” he said. “It’s just great.”

For two hours, he said, he feels “compassion and emotion.”

“Time passes fast, and it’s amazing, the two hours, but you don’t want the show to end,” he said. “You just want to be here for another two hours.”

He expressed gratitude to the artists and said if he could convey any message to them, it would be one of encouragement to continue.

“It’s just beautiful. Everything is beautiful,” Mr. Lktrejo said.

Reporting by Yeawen Hung and Catherine Yang.

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