Shen Yun Is Very Elegant and Very Unique, Says Company Owner
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Stephen Leuthold and his family enjoyed Shen Yun's evening performance at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts on Dec. 30, 2025. Frank Liang/The Epoch Times
HOUSTON—Stephen Leuthold, the owner of a cyber-security company, wasn’t quite sure what to expect when he and his family stepped into Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening show at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts on Dec. 30.
Seated close to the stage, Mr. Leuthold said he could feel the energy emanating from the artists. By the end of the evening, he was happy to report that his whole family had a wonderful time.
“I thought it was amazing. All the performers were very elegant, very synchronized,” he said. “It’s very unique—something I haven’t really seen before in person.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, dedicated to reviving China’s 5,000 years of divine-inspired culture that was nearly lost under communist rule.
Its performance features a series of short dances recounting ancient legends and regional traditions from across China, along with solo musical pieces.
Mr. Leuthold couldn’t agree more with the company’s mission to bring back traditional culture. He thought it extremely important and highly educational for both him and his children.
“[The kids are] glued to their phones, playing games and everything. So, I think it’s important to experience things in person rather than digital. [Shen Yun] is good for their development,” he said.
“I’ve never been to China before, so I don’t really know what the past was like and what the present is now, but I’m learning from this performance. … It seems like it was more free before than it is now.”
Mr. Leuthold’s wife is from Vietnam, and her family fled communist rule, so he is familiar with the hardships people face under such regimes. As a result, he was deeply touched by Shen Yun’s story-based dance, raising awareness for the ongoing persecution of people of faith in China.
“There’s a lot of emotion, especially when they came up on stage and talked about some of the history and how Falun Gong was persecuted in China up to this day. You feel a lot of emotion when they went through the dance routine,” he shared.
Shen Yun is “educating everybody on what classical Chinese dance is,” and reminding us that “people should have freedom of religion, no matter what they practice.”
Since its establishment in 2006, Shen Yun has received widespread acclaim and has grown from one to eight equally-sized companies that tour the world simultaneously. This season, the artists are scheduled to visit more than 200 cities worldwide.
When asked what he would tell his friends about the performance, Mr. Leuthold responded enthusiastically that he would “highly recommend it.”
“It’s a very unique experience,” he said. “My whole family has enjoyed it.”
