DENVER—“This is the second year I’ve come for this show, and you bet I'll be coming for the third time,” said Amit Munshi, Professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University.
Last year, Mr. Munshi bought his wife tickets to the performance, but he didn’t know he would become such a fan. This year, they returned and brought their cousin Aniruddha Savargaonkar, research scientist at Colorado State University, to see the performance at the Buell Theatre on April 11, 2026.
“It’s one experience that it’s unmatched,” Mr. Munshi said. “It’s just absolutely beautiful in every manner.”
“Some of the performances and some of the actions almost brought tears to me. … It was so inspiring … all my senses were on fire,” he added. “I can’t have enough of this kind of performance; it’s amazing.”
“I’m always blown away with how perfectly everything is synchronized,” Mr. Munshi said. “[There] was not a thread out of place, not a second out of place. Everything was perfect.”
“I would like to bring my students to a show like this to explain to them what discipline looks like,” he added. “They are just so perfectly synced with the music, with each other. … It’s almost like everybody is reading each other’s minds.”
Coming from an engineering background, Mr. Savargaonkar was particularly impressed by the company’s patented method for integrating a 3D animated backdrop into the stage performance. It allows the performers to travel back and forth between the stage and the background projection.
“The synchronization … the colors, and the integration of the screen behind the performances, it was just mind-blowing,” he said.
Mr. Munshi said that he paid particular attention to the music this year, since he only realized Shen Yun included a live orchestra near the end of last year’s production.
Shen Yun’s one-of-a-kind orchestra blends traditional Chinese instruments with a classical Western orchestra. Ancient Chinese instruments such as the two-stringed erhu and the pipa lead the melody, alongside traditional instruments found in a Western orchestra.
“So, it’s not even what you just see on the screen or the stage, which is itself beautiful, but the music is being played while they are performing. … Every piece of art … is working together in a synchronized manner,” he said.
“I myself am a very spiritual person, and how that is integrated … it was portrayed in a very beautiful and subtle manner,” Mr. Munshi said. “It is a means of showing the connection between human emotionally with the greater energy, the universe. We can give it a different name, but Buddha in this case.”
“But it was such an important component of a couple of those acts and stories. So, I think it was woven absolutely beautifully,” he added.
In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (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.
The dance story illustrates how divine miracles can shine through when a person’s faith, despite being beaten and tortured, can endure or be reawakened.
“It talks about hope; it talks about how … they don’t give up … and I think that is important,” Mr. Munshi said. “We need to be grateful for what we have. But when we receive what we prayed for, we should not forget what we stood for and our spirituality and our connection with the greater being of which this entire universe is.”
Mr. Savargaonkar was also moved by the contemporary dance drama.
“I feel sad for people who are forced or oppressed … or are not allowed to follow their beliefs,” he said. “It was a good way to portray and to show the hurt and … sufferings [that] they have to go through.”
Mr. Munshi said his takeaway from the performance is to “be what change you want the world around you to be.”
“If we think of ourselves as part of the bigger universe, we do what’s right, and everybody starts doing that, we will be in a better world,” he said.
Utilizing art, music, and dance, Shen Yun’s story-based dances are “a really beautiful way to spread the word of kindness,” Mr. Munshi said.
“It just brings everybody together,” he said. “In that room … there is probably one person from every religion, one person from every ethnicity … and everybody was clapping at the same time.”
“I think that is just why art is important beyond just creativity … it is a wonderful way of spreading a good message,” he added.
“I'll be here next year,” he said.
To the Shen Yun company, Mr. Savargaonkar said, “Please keep doing what you do, and I would really appreciate if I can come to watch this like two times a year.”
“It’s so amazing to see all the years and years of efforts and training and discipline they put into this,” he added. “I'll just salute to them. It’s amazing.”
