PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts presented its second show at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on Jan. 3.

 

"It's wonderful. We love the dancing and the colors. It's so different than any American dance or ballet that we've ever seen," said Wendee Koren, a graphic artist who attended the matinee performance.

 

Shen Yun is a performance of classical Chinese dance and music. The dance style pulls from China's 5,000 years of culture. "The unique art of Chinese dance that we know today, with its impressive scale and system, is the product of generations of dancers’ many years of artistic experience combined with their refining, reorganizing, and reworking of the art form," says the Web site of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

 

"It's totally different from what I expected," said Koren. "The music was amazing—it was different—and the colors and costumes were phenomenal."

 

Also attending the show was Koren's 8-year-old son, Kobe. "It's very new to me because I've never seen Chinese dancing, and it was amazing," he said.