Shen Yun Brings People Together: Audience

With another tough year behind us, families are finding hope in a dance performance. Many came together to celebrate the new year with Shen Yun Performing Arts.

This New Year’s weekend was one to remember for many people—including Carolina Vera, who brought her family to see Shen Yun at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"I enjoy it, every second of it is just amazing," said Carolina Vera, a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Carolina. "And the beautiful, a message that just leaves you ... when you leave out of that [performance] you just feel happy. Because it's a lot of messages that probably in this new days, we have forgotten, you know. It's just peace, hope, and that there is still a beautiful world out there."

Vera said her two children have always had a bond with Chinese culture—and this performance deepened that bond.

"I really love Shen Yun," said David, her son in Chinese.

Vera’s mother can’t understand Chinese or English, but she said the performance still brought her joy.

"She felt very happy inside because she could understand the different meanings," Vera added. "You know, I don't really know what she was getting for every single dance. But, you know, in her heart, she was just feeling happy and enjoying every single part of the performance."

Shen Yun draws inspiration from China’s 5,000 years of civilization—a divinely inspired culture—and has a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture, which has nearly been destroyed.

"What I like about the entire performance that I've seen so far is this sense of the continuity between traditions, going back thousands of years, and the current situation that people face today in China and around the world," said John Hood, the president of John William Pope Foundation.

"Events like this, that I think that brings us closer to the Chinese people before communism," said Lloyd Moody, the president of CPA.

Haley Horn, a business owner, saw Shen Yun in Florida.

"I love the mission behind Shen Yun, and I love the stories that were told today," she said. "It was very moving because it just was so real and raw. ... A lot of times ... you go to performances, there['s] just not a lot of depth. And there was just so much depth to the story, and to the history and just, we learned so much."

Some audience members said the performance can unify people.

"It was very, very healing, very moving. I think bringing people together, [and] the celebration, elevating the soul elevating the mind," said Horn.

"One of the consequences of the pandemic is a lack of connection," said Hood. "People physically and emotionally being separated from themselves. And I think that a performance like this that shows performers all together on the stage acting in concert, telling a story and being in perfect synchronicity, I think that's a symbol for what we need to get back to post-pandemic."

"I think this message needs to go out to everyone: that in this world, we're all alike. We're just all alike," said Moody.

Shen Yun will be performing in seven states throughout the United States and in Europe this week.