SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Shares ‘A Very Profound Message,’ Says Australian Barrister

Mar 27, 2026

3/27/2026Updated: 3/27/2026

SYDNEY, Australia—Barrister Sophie York attended Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee at the Sydney Lyric for the first time on March 26, and came away deeply impressed by the vision of the company’s artistic director.

She described the performance as exhilarating, mesmerizing, hypnotic, and very extraordinary.

“It’s so wonderful to be here. It’s such an honor and a privilege,” Ms. York said. “I’m really intrigued by the motivation of the creator, what they’re trying to elicit in the hearts of the audience really fascinates me.”

“It’s very uplifting, and the colors are all bright and beautiful, and the music is very happy and optimistic. So clearly, the creator wants to present something that is a contrast to the darkness in the world. I’m really struck by that.”

Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance and music company. Presenting a brand-new set of programs each year, the company has been delighting audiences around the world since 2006.

Before the communist party’s spread of atheism, Chinese people were very spiritual and had a deep belief in the divine. For thousands of years, their values and day-to-day actions were strictly governed by the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

In the decades since the communist regime seized power, Chinese culture was forced to the brink of extinction. The New York-based artists are seeking to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture and showcase to the world the beauty of China before communism.

Ms. York loved the richness and depth of the traditional culture portrayed on stage.

“There’s the concept of truth and beauty in harmony. And beauty, as we know, is a transcendental virtue, and truth is something that we all ought to be seeking,” she shared. “So that combination of truth and beauty is a very striking feature of Shen Yun. It’s just very beautiful and mesmerizing, and it makes you happy to see it. It’s very extraordinary. It’s an amazing creation.”

Reflecting on the artists’ use of story-based dances to raise awareness about the ongoing human rights issues in present-day China under communist rule, Ms. York said, it’s a very important topic.

“We are entitled to be free. We are human beings, we’re born to be free—free to speak and express and have our thoughts and move our bodies, associate with others, believe what we want to believe. All that is essential to the human condition,” she shared.

“So, this performance really emphasizes that. [Shen Yun] brings it to life in a very magical way.”

Lastly, she would like to commend the artists on sharing “a very profound message” through dance and music.

“My congratulations to everyone involved in this. It’s profound. I’m also astounded at how the arts are manifest in many ways—in paintings, in creative writing, but this is the physicality of dance,” Ms. York explained.

“They’re using the human body to say that we can all express how we feel, not just in words, not just in drawings, but in our whole bodies. That’s a very profound message… very beautiful, and it’s been revealed to me today. So, I do recommend this show.”

Reporting by NTD and Jennifer Tseng.

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