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Parenting expert and anti-bullying pioneer Teresa Triggiano enjoyed Shen Yun at the Queen Elizabeht Theatre in Vancouver on Jan. 10, 2013. (Courtesy of NTD Television)
VANCOUVER, Canada—Parenting expert and anti-bullying pioneer Teresa Triggiano attended Shen Yun Performing Arts on Thursday at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre and said the show offers a powerful message of tolerance.
“[Shen Yun’s] message about tolerance and peace and truth was quite powerful,” she said. “I thought it was wonderful.”
Ms. Triggiano, a regular youth expert on Global News, attended the show with her family.
“We all felt pretty excited and positive and happy after [the show],” she said. “Really enjoyed it.”
Ms. Triggiano has been a family and youth counsellor and workshop educator since 1991. She has presented workshops to over 39,000 British Columbia students on the topics of healthy relationships, peer victimization, dating violence, conflict resolution, body image, self-esteem and bullying.
She also co-founded the anti-bullying workshop Stand By Me and has presented it to over 20,000 students.
She was awarded by the City of Vancouver for her years of service at the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre, and also worked as a popular weekly parenting columnist for the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
Ms. Triggiano said she is an avid performing arts fan and appreciated the classical Chinese dance and folk dance in Shen Yun.
“It was beautiful dancing. We love to watch dancing so we thought they were very talented dancers,” she said, adding that the dancers were “incredibly graceful.”
New York-based Shen Yun is a world-renowned classical Chinese dance and music company. Formed in 2006 by overseas Chinese artists, the show aims to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture that has been virtually destroyed under communist rule, says the website.
Featuring story-based dance dramas, digital backdrops and traditional Chinese instruments in a full orchestra, Shen Yun captures the essence of China’s divinely inspired culture and values.
Ms. Triggiano was saddened to hear that Shen Yun cannot perform in China, where traditional art forms remain suppressed. Some of the dances in the performance also tell true-life stories of persecution in today’s China.
“We were quite touched by the message that they had to give,” she said. “Beautiful and also quite a powerful message which I really enjoyed.”
Ms. Triggiano adored the digitally animated backdrops in the performance which projects ancient landscapes and heavenly paradises, adding depth and context to each story-dance.
“The graphics were really clever and we just really enjoyed all of it,” she said. “It was really great.”Reporting by NTD Television and Justina Wheale.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s Touring Company will play five shows in Vancouver Jan. 10-13, while the New York Company will complete its tour of eastern Canada with five shows in Toronto Jan. 17–20. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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