Shen Yun Performing Arts Reviews

Ctjed from Hartford, Connecticut

BORED OUT OF MY MIND

Leaping, swirling, colorful costumes, lots of scarves. Repeat the formula again and again ... , intermixed with anti Communist propaganda. In comparison to Cirque du Soleil, these guys are amateurs. Advertising promises a performance that will touch your soul. The only thing touched was my wallet.

Patrice from Costa Mesa, California

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

I was so excited to see Shin Yun after watching the commercials each year. I couldn’t wait to watch the dancers fly through the air effortlessly. Mannnn was I so disappointed. I spent $230 on two tickets only to walk out during the intermission and we were not the only ones that left. I gave 2 stars for the female dancers and their costumes. Yes the female’s costumes were gorgeous and bursting with color, but after the first 45 mins, I was bored. I kept waiting and hoping the show to “pickup”. I kept waiting for the excitement the commercials gave me every time I saw them. Nothing of the kind happened for me! The best part was the female dancers in their beautiful costumes but even they seem to run out of steam or repeat many of same moves with each scene. There were no surprises and no climatic moments. The male dancers were totally boring and performed a lot of backflips across the stage like gymnasts. Definitely not worthy of $130 per ticket. The CGI screen was actually cool but not attention grabbing enough to keep me interested for 2 hours. For each scene, they had narrators come out and tell you the story of what you were about to see next. I found this constant interruption weird and disruptive. You don’t need a narrative when you go to the opera which is often in another language. Whyyyyyy do they think we need an explanation for each of the approx. 20 dance sequences. Obviously, the outtakes they use for the commercials wasn’t the show I just watched. I've read they create a new show each year, but whomever created today’s show has nowhere near the vision and exciting choreography shown in the commercials. This was not my cup of tea, not at all the high level of artistry I was expecting and unfortunately an expensive lesson learned.

Mad Sto from Madison, Wisconsin

PRETTY COSTUMES AND THEN, NOT MUCH

Repetitive. More regimented than skilled or artistic. The first 20 minutes were lovely, but it never got better. We left at intermission.

Fluffy Wondertuffs from Ottawa, Ontario

SHEN YUN?

An extremely expensive but mercifully short show by a ballet group that bills itself as "the world's premier classical Chinese dance and music company." Deceptively these aren't members of Falun Gong but instead recycled, cell phoned, footloose members of the "out of work" dancers guild of the Juilliard school in New York City. They were nicely costumed, accompanied by an "Eastern Pop" Symphony Orchestra, backed by "out of date" stage props complete with dry ice and further backed by a seemingly bottomless publicity budget. About the most exciting thing was the silver-haired bat (native to eastern Ontario) that was flying around Southam Hall during the first half of the show. The unfortunate rodent was later driven out of the premises by the shrill, Dolly Parton on Helium musings of a wobbly soprano dutifully forcing out a 50 word religious song. In a 2012 statement, the Chinese embassy in Washington issued a warning to Americans who might have been swayed by all the Shen Yun posters that appear annually in almost every conceivable urban location in our major cities. Well, if the all powerful, organ harvesting, 5G network meddling Chinese government is so affected by this show I think perhaps we should heed their ominous warning before we fork out the $160CDN per ticket .

John Buchser from Santa Fe, nm

POOR PERFORMANCE

Albuquerque two years ago. Our local orchestras are much better. They have multiple sets of performers and orchestras, some may be better. They were clear they were presenting 'a perspective' of China. Having lots of performers of mediocre quality is not the way to impress the public. Some of the costuming interesting. Astounding amount of TV advertising in advance. Granted that I'm spoiled by high quality events in Santa Fe including world-class opera. Shen Yun might be interesting if you live in a very small town with no alternatives.

D. Rigoni from Chicago, Illinois

DISAPPOINTING AND MISLEADING

Seating was not great. We were in a balcony section that had a cross bar at eye level which disrupted our view of half the stage. I am not prone to negative reviews but must say advertisements for Shen Yun are rather misleading. Show was not as energized, athletic or fast paced as marketing would lead one to believe and the spiritual/religious/political messages peppered throughout the performance were clearly the primary agenda. I was not prepared for that. Costuming is lovely but numbers did seem repetitious and less challenging than expected. Tickets were pricey. I would not recommend this unless one understands and is interested in the true message and agenda of Shen Yun.

KDdid from Phoenix, Arizona

SECT PROPAGANDA MASQUERADING AS ART

Background: "Falun Gong," a Chinese religious practice, was introduced in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Shen Yun is simply a collection Falun Gong dogmatic 'finger-pointing,' with (albeit entertaining) interspersed choreographed musical numbers. At best, condescension, at worst, disguised indoctrination.

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