.png)
Mr. Luc-Benoît Lauzon, an official with the National Hockey League (NHL), praised Shen Yun dancers and their performance at Place des Arts on Jan. 4, 2013. (Mathieu Côté-Desjardins/The Epoch Times)
MONTREAL—Inside the packed Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, the largest theatre hall in Place des Arts, people from many professional backgrounds gathered to see the second show of the world-touring company Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“We feel the purity, authenticity, and the glow of the people who are in the show,” said Luc-Benoît Lauzon, a National Hockey League (NHL) official, after he saw Shen Yun on Friday evening.
Mr. Lauzon, a founder of a consulting business in addition to his work with the professional ice hockey league, felt something really special from dancers, singers, and musicians.
Shen Yun has been established for over seven years and has three equally large companies that tour the globe simultaneously. The show includes dances, bell canto singers, and sometimes an erhu soloist performance.
“We feel the same purity in their voices and their movements. When you hear the songs, the sound of the orchestra, we feel the sincerity that’s emanated. This is the first thing that strikes you,” he said.
The synchronization of Shen Yun’s dancers also fascinated Mr. Lauzon.
“It is not simply the synchronization between the people who are on the stage, but one with the music and the animated backdrop. A prerecorded soundtrack could not be more accurate. This synchronism is incredible!”
Shen Yun set as its mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture that has been inspired by the divine, according to the company’s website. The company aims to revive the culture that has as its core the values of “benevolence, honour, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity, as well as a reverence for the gods and the heavens.”
The NHL official said that typically in life, the harder and longer one works for something, the easier it gets.
“Tonight, everything seemed so easy [for the dancers]. I would question the amount of work they had to do to make it seem so easy. People were jumping and we had the impression that they’ve been doing this since forever, without even needing warm-up or practice,” said Mr. Lauzon.
Reporting by Mathieu Côté-Desjardins and Kristina Skorbach
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s New York Company will play five shows in Montreal Jan. 3-6 and one show in Quebec City Jan. 8 before going on to Kitchener, Waterloo, and Toronto in its tour of eastern Canada.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 20 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
