Audience: Shen Yun Reviving the Spirit

Last Saturday, Shen Yun performed in three different states in the United States.

Audience members said they were astounded by the performance.

"It just blew away and ... I couldn't put it into words if I tried," said Kenneth Kirkland, who saw the performance in Birmingham, Alabama. "Two hours just melted away and it wasn't long enough."

"It's beyond imagination, it's absolutely stunning. It's just a fascinating explosion of beauty," said John Bailey, who saw Shen Yun in Syracuse, New York. "It's a very emotional experience, I don't know how you can watch it and not be changed."

County Commissioner Kevin Calvey and his wife and daughter saw the performance in Oklahoma City on the afternoon of Feb. 12.

"It's wonderful. It's just the colors and the movements. It ranks up there with the best ballet or other dance performance I've ever seen," he said.

"I was just amazed at how beautiful the dance is, and the moves," said his daughter, Anastasia Calvey. "Everything was just so incredible. I didn't know something could be that beautiful."

Toni Calvey, Kevin's wife, said she was moved by the spiritual aspect of the performance.

"The music was actually quite touching and I love the gentleman that sang the bass," she said. "The line that he had about the Creator opening the heavens for us was particularly touching to me."

Taryn Gilbert, who is the co-owner and a performer at Sing for America, saw the performance in Syracuse, New York, on Saturday evening.

"I absolutely love it, especially as a dancer, one of the things that you notice are the different techniques of dancing, and I've never actually seen a traditional Chinese dance before. So to watch it, and to notice the different traditional techniques is just something, it's just so interesting and so beautiful."

But the bass singer moved her to tears.

"To hear him sing like that was so much power and so much emotion behind the voice and behind the words," she added.

"But the fact that Chinese culture is divinely inspired was something that I never knew," said Gilbert. "It really adds a sort of—an element of mystery and I guess divinity to the performance because all of it is just, I guess somewhat angelic."

"It makes you feel just joyful, and happy and uplifted. And like you're floating," she added.

The ancient Chinese believed that culture and many aspects of it—such as art—were gifts from the heavens. But since the communist regime took power, it has systematically destroyed the culture's core values.

Shen Yun's mission is to revive the 5,000 years of Chinese culture.

Rice said he saw a message of "divinity and seeking something higher outside of ourselves" through the performance, and it's "a very powerful message."

"I saw this China before communism, and I think it's an important message to us all about where we all can end up if we don't pay attention," said Bailey.

"[The performance] helped me kind of think about my own faith in my own values, and how really, those are contrary to communism," said Kevin Rice, chief of Knowledge Management at Fort Drum. "So we do need to think about those things and stand up for our higher values and our higher morals."

"I think that a production like [Shen Yun] has a huge potential to bring people together of all cultures," said Debbie Lucas, a writer who saw Shen Yun in Birmingham, Alabama.

"It makes you feel just joyful, and happy and uplifted," said Gilbert. "Like you're floating."

NTD News, New York