PHILADELPHIA—Yulia Bolotova is a highly accomplished Philadelphia-based tennis professional and elite masters competitor. She won the gold medal in the W40 Young Cup at the ITF Masters World Team Championships in March 2025.
On April 17, instead of being on the “center court,” she decided to be in the audience and experienced what she called “amazingly flexible and athletic” classical Chinese dance by Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Miller Theater.
Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Its artists are trained in classical Chinese dance, one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world.
Ms. Bolotova was impressed by the Shen Yun dancers. “Oh yes, they’re very good. I can’t do that. I mean, I can play tennis, but not that,” she said jokingly. “They’re very elegant, flexible, and amazing.”
Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by elite Chinese artists who escaped religious persecution in China. The mission of Shen Yun is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.
Classical Chinese dance is a very expressive dance form and thus is capable of expressing a multitude of emotions through dance movements and dancers’ facial expressions. With accompaniment by the Shen Yun Orchestra, thousand-year-old Chinese legends are brought to life on stage.
Ms. Bolotova enjoyed the storytelling aspect of Shen Yun and thought it “told a great story and was very uplifting.”
Like many other audience members, she said she did not know much Chinese history to begin with, but was able to understand the message and learn something new.
“I didn’t know a lot about Chinese history,” she said, “but I read the story in a program book, and I learned a lot about different regions and their dance styles and colorful outfits.”
“It’s very happy and very spiritual at the same time. I'd recommend everyone to come.” Ms. Bolotova said.
Reporting by Frank Liang and Sophia Fang.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
