SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Ontario Cabinet Minister Sees Educational Value and Theme of Kindness in Shen Yun

Mar 25, 2024
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Ontario Cabinet Minister Sees Educational Value and Theme of Kindness in Shen Yun
Ontario member of provincial parliament Charmaine Williams, who also serves as an associate minister in the provincial government, issued a congratulatory letter to the Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company at the Living Arts Theatre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on March 24, 2024. (NTD)
MISSISSAUGA, Canada—Charmaine Williams, associate minister of women’s social and economic opportunity in the province of Ontario, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts for the second time at the Living Arts Centre on March 24.

“It’s so vibrant, so bright,” Ms. Williams said.

“It just makes you feel alive when you’re watching the show. All of the dancers are just amazingly trained and strong, and it just threw us through a whole new experience,” she added.

“It was just excellent. Every single aspect of the show was a delight.”

New York-based Shen Yun has been the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company since its inception in 2006. Its performers come from all around the world, united in their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture and the beauty and goodness of China before communism.
Ms. Williams enjoyed listening to Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments. One of the Chinese instruments is the erhu, a unique two-stringed instrument. The audience had the opportunity to listen to an erhu solo, a piece that greatly impressed Ms. Williams.
“That woman was exquisite,” Ms. Williams said. “Her ability to play that instrumentit creates so many textures to the sound, ... it was wonderful.”

“I didn’t know two strings can create such intricate notes,” she added. “I think that is what is so amazing. The vibration, the sound of it, it really gives a calming effect but also makes you feel very invigorated as well.”

Kindness was a theme Ms. Williams said she saw throughout Shen Yun’s performance and one that she loved.

“Kindness and making sure we’re following the right way, I thought it was very powerful,” she said.

“Right now in the world—we need kindness. We need acceptance and love and kindness, and I really felt that throughout the whole show.”

The cabinet minister commented that “we’re all humans in this world, and when you are rooted in your faith and rooted in God and seeing kindness as the way forward, you can’t go wrong.”

Ms. Williams brought her daughters to see Shen Yun as well, and she said they were able “to learn about different art forms and how dance is shown in different cultures.”

“It was a really great educational piece for them,” said Ms. Williams. “One of my daughters is a dancer and she was just blown away by the skill in the dance.”

The cabinet minister expressed her appreciation for the dancers and how meaningful Shen Yun’s performance was.

“Thank you to all of the dancers who were able to show us traditional dance and show us what things were like before communism,” said Ms. Williams.

“I think that’s important for us. When you learn about culture and you learn about experiences, and how things used to be, it really helps you identify and know where we need to go,” she added.

“And it was great to see the dancers show the classical dance of the culture and also the skill, the leg extensions, and the jumps and the movement. It was an excellent reality of what dance used to be and how free it is, and I thought it was wonderful. ”

Reporting by NTD and Wandi Zhu.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.

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