ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—The billboards have been plastered in bright colors for months. The words “China before communism” invite theatergoers to see the vibrant Shen Yun Performing Arts classical Chinese dance company, and today, many who filled the Duke Energy Center for the Arts discovered what this really meant.The show opened with a mythical scene of the Chinese heavens. An entourage of gods and goddesses, played by Shen Yun’s dancers, rendezvous with the Creator of the universe, then all descend to Earth to act as the multifarious dynasties and ethnicities across China’s 5,000-year history. The audience followed their epic journey—all the way to present-day China.“I liked the different ethnic dances, the folk dances,” Al Furnari, a capital buyer who saw Shen Yun on Sunday, told The Epoch Times after the performance. The Mongolian dance was particularly impressive, he said. “They were fierce fighters, and [had] a lot of horses. You saw the horses in the background. That was prevalent in the culture. A lot of them were great riders.”
The New York-based dance company painstakingly researches ancient motifs to portray in their costumes—such as the refreshing colors worn in the Mongolian segment. Since its conception 20 years ago, Shen Yun has toured globally to revive a culture that was “almost lost” during the destructive purges of China’s Cultural Revolution.
But beyond the costumes and colors, Shen Yun delves deeper into China’s ancient spirituality. Buddhist and Daoist beliefs once pervaded Chinese history until religion, free from state control, became persecuted under the officially atheist rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
“When people try to stop certain freedoms that I think are inherent in all of them, it’s not a good thing,” said Furnari, who learned of Shen Yun’s pre-communist affiliation during today’s show. “And the only way to stop it from happening is to do something about it. Push back, so to speak.”
Meanwhile, many of Shen Yun’s performers follow the tenets of Falun Dafa, a spiritual belief now banned in China, and audience members saw persecution of this faith portrayed onstage. Dancers played a scene of a young Falun Dafa practitioner being abused and blinded by CCP officials.
Many audience members, including Furnari, were moved by the scene of the present-day persecution of belief.
“I like the story about the oppression and the way that the interaction [unfolded] and how they dealt with it,” he said. “I think that was important.”
Now that Shen Yun has performed in the Tampa area for over 15 years, it has—for some families—become a cherished tradition to attend the show during the holidays. Last Christmas, the son of Fred Malibiran, a physician, received tickets, and today Shen Yun was a family affair. This was the Malibiran family’s second year seeing Shen Yun.
Fred Malibiran and his wife, Maribel, attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Feb. 8, 2026. Lily Yu/The Epoch Times
“It’s worth seeing, getting a different perspective prior to communism,” Malibiran told The Epoch Times during the intermission. “The one with current China, where they were imprisoned and so forth; that really points out the message of [what China was like] prior to communism.”
Of course, Shen Yun also presents ancient Chinese myths, brought to life by its world-renowned dancers, a live orchestra that blends both Chinese and classical Western instruments, and stunning visual effects. Its state-of-the-art special effect allows the dancers to interact seamlessly with Shen Yun’s animated backdrops for an immersive effect, transporting audience members, including Malibiran, into ancient China’s mystical worlds.
“I felt like I was part of it, actually,” he said.
Summing up their sentiments, his wife, Maribel, said the experience was “very memorable.”
Reporting by Lily Yun, Sally Sun, and Michael Wing.
NTD is a media sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts, covering audience reactions since 2006.