{"id":150946,"date":"2026-02-11T00:46:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150946\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T00:46:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:46:32","slug":"incredible-shen-yun-a-hit-with-theatergoers-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150946\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Incredible\u2019: Shen Yun a Hit With Theatergoers in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014As a martial artist, Richard Rios knows something about the great warriors in Chinese Literature, such as the legendary Monkey King<\/a>, Sun Wukong. But watching the monkey mystic superhero portrayed onstage by Shen Yun Performing Arts this Sunday afternoon was \u201cdifferent, in a refreshing way,\u201d Mr. Rios said.<\/p>\n

The New York-based Shen Yun, which specializes in classical Chinese dance, was clearly on the same wavelength as audience members in the Duke Energy Center for the Arts this evening. And on many levels.<\/p>\n

Shen Yun \u201cwas incredible, it was more than I expected,\u201d Mr. Rios told The Epoch Times after the show. \u201cThe style of dancing was very different, but different in an incredible way. I loved the stories!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is through an ancient style of dance called classical Chinese dance, which has similarities with martial arts<\/a>, that Shen Yun revives<\/a> the lore of ancient China. Its artists seek to create a renaissance for a culture that was \u201calmost lost\u201d under communism. Many traditions and religions were persecuted during China\u2019s Cultural Revolution.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rios, an accountant by day, pointed to the essence of the show, that is, the morals and spirit behind the stories, which Shen Yun somehow makes feel refreshingly alive again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the focus on goodness and kindness,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we need a lot more in this world\u2014a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Shen Yun\u2019s performers belong to the persecuted faith Falun Gong<\/a>, which is banned in China. Some of them fled to America for freedom of belief. Based in upstate New York, the dance company now aims to shed light on this issue and share its message around the world.On a deeper level, Mr. Rios even ventured to call Shen Yun<\/a> \u201cspiritual.\u201d \u201cBut not religion-specific,\u201d he said, \u201cSpiritual, like our inner spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spirituality is present in Shen Yun\u2019s opening scene: the Chinese myth of creation, wherein the Creator calls upon a multitude of gods and goddesses to follow him down to Earth to play as actors in China\u2019s 5,000-year-history. The segments follow the diverse dynasties and ethnicities through a grand procession\u2014right to present-day China.<\/p>\n

Some audience members, like John Dawson, who attended the same show, paid close attention to segments that alluded to chaos in modern China. Shen Yun openly portrays a young Falun Gong believer<\/a>being abused by communist officials onstage.\"John<\/p>\n

John Dawson attends Shen Yun with his wife, Missy, and daughter, Cloe, at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Feb. 8. Lily Yu\/The Epoch Times<\/p>\n

\u201cMy beliefs may be a little bit different, but where they\u2019re coming from, it\u2019s positive, very uplifting,\u201d Mr. Dawson, a fiber-optics installer who also happens to have studied kung fu, told The Epoch Times after the show. \u201cWhat most people know of China overall is just communism\u2014that\u2019s all they know. But this shows the other side of it. This shows how communism tried to reshape what the world knows of China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson attended Sunday\u2019s performance<\/a> with his wife, Missy, and his daughter, Cloe.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery beautiful,\u201d said Cloe Dawson, a high-schooler who aspires to be an aesthetician. \u201cIt makes you happy to see so many people putting passion and effort into something so beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting by Lily Yu and Michael Wing.<\/p>\n

NTD is a media sponsor of\u00a0Shen Yun Performing Arts, covering\u00a0audience reactions\u00a0since 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014As a martial artist, Richard Rios knows something about the great warriors in Chinese Literature, such…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-150946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}