Shen Yun Performing Arts Reviews

A Nani Mouse from Seattle, Washington

FALUN DAFA PROPAGANDA WITH DECENT DANCING

2/3 of the show was decent Chinese dancing and 1/3 was "Falun Dafa Is Good" propaganda with Chinese police beating dissidents, a piano number singing how only repenters will be saved, and an ending where a heavenly tidal wave destroys communist China and the rapture- equivelant occurs in hokey cgi. That said I liked the scholars dance, the soldiers dance, and would watch another Miao dance even if the scientologists put it on. Overall mediocre for date night.

from Boise, ID

OVER HYPED AND OVERLY RELIGIOUS

There were about 6-8 pure dancing routines, and I thought 2-3 of them were good. The rest seemed recycled from the other routines, with just different background and outfits. The costumes were bright and a huge positive. There were 6-8 "plays" (ballet/dance) of which 2-3 were entertaining. The rest were pretty basic ballet and nothing special. Almost ALL of the "plays" were religious based which was kind of a turn off. The music was good, but after 2+ hours of it, it became VERY monotonous. A singer came out and she literally sang the same song twice - back-to-back. Once was plenty. It was a religious song with about 50 words. There were two MCs: a young white male and a young Asian women. They were pretty flat and lame. It was VERY annoying that she would repeat everything in Chinese. We are not in China. I don't think it added to the show. It annoyed. If you really love ballet, you would like this show; Otherwise, the show was 3 stars at BEST.

Hibert from Tucson, Arizona

ENTERTAINING, BUT BE READY FOR CULT PROPAGANDA

The show was a beautiful display of color, dance and music. The music was played well but was as repetitive as the dance. It was billed as traditional Chinese art but I felt it fell far short of conveying anything traditional, other than a few musical instruments and some folkloric stories. But what disappointed me the most was the political / religious overtones that just got more heavy handed as the show progressed. Not to give anything away but, the final few acts were nothing but propaganda from the members of the Falun Gong "religion". This was started in 1992 in Southern China, quickly spread and the members have been persecuted by the Chinese government off and on ever since.

Alex K from Toronto, Ontario

OK, BUT TOO HEAVY-HANDED.

I enjoyed many of the dances, and the costumes and music could be very pleasant. However, the show was far too heavy-handed politically, and the advertising did not give an accurate picture of the kind of show we would receive. Some of the dances told a fun story and I especially enjoyed some of the instrumental content, but the opera singers and several dances were quite preachy. The CGI backdrop was cheesy, and a final dance of Buddha wiping out Falun Gong persecutors in a wave of judgment was, well...not what I came to see. The price of the tickets did not at all reflect the quality of the show. Beware of Shen Yun!

Mark Oesterlin from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

ARTFUL, BUT NOT ENTERTAINING

This show is a compilation of styles of different classical dances from China. The Chinese government, since the communist revolution, has worked to eradicate what it considers to be elitist art. These dance and music styles have been eliminated from China, but some Chinese peole here in America have perserved the art. The dance styles and costumes are very beautiful and interesting, but unless you speak Chinese, the singing and overall performance tends to be long and boring. There's no overall story, since it is styles from across many centuries. I'm glad I wnt to see it one time, but I probably won't ever go again.

Denny from Seattle, Washington

SHEN YUN 2018

Saw the 2018 Shen Yun performance at McCaw Hall, My wife and I were "prepared to be amazed", but left very disappointed. The performers were great, but the show lacked an easy flow. After each set, two narrators appeared on stage to introduce the next set and explain everything. The make narrator tried to inject some lame humor from time to time, and that just didn't work. Would have been better to just eliminate the narrators and let the crew change sets with curtains closed. Beside the continual communism beating, we noticed a definite western bent on the show. The kicker for us was the scene where one male dancer happened to plant his face in the rear end of another male dancer. Dancer A proceeds to fart in dancer B's face, knocking him over backwards. Very funny. Just the kind of thing we were hoping to see in this production. So sad! We had cheap seats ($90.00 ea), and I was happy that we didn't get the expensive ones. Overall, not worth the cost for parking,

Anatoliy K from Venice, FL

BORING; WAISTED TIME AND MONEY

The show was not like one piece that you watch from the beginning to the end on one breath (like for example cirque du soleil "O"). Two hosts after each dance number were so boring bringing all dynamics of this concert so down. The technical part of the show was also poor and outdated, may be 10 years ago this video projection of poor quality was great. The orchestra sound must be better - this is 2018 and they should use microphones to make a perfect sound to connect to the "show". There are some ridiculous dance numbers with cell phones and all these communist anti-propaganda. There is no leitmotif and logically developed direction - just chaos. And stage also looked poor because there were no decorations and they relied on this poor projection on a screen. Bottom line - we are very disappointed. Lost money and time. If you think that we are the only people who complain on this show, type in google " south san francisco shen yun review on yelp". Not recommend this at all.

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