MONTREAL—Olympic gold medallist Sylvie Fréchette attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts at Place des Arts with her family on Jan. 4, 2013, and said the show shone with hope and courage.
“There is hope, there is something very positive—the strength of everyone—I found this very touching,” she said in French after the show.
“The message of hope, the good—It was really beautiful.”
Ms. Fréchette, a retired Canadian synchronized swimmer, won a gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics and a silver in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
In 1999, she was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. She has also contributed as a swimmer, designer, and coach to the synchronized-swimming portions of Cirque du Soleil’s water-themed stage production, O.
Ms. Fréchette was impressed by the synchronicity in Shen Yun’s large group dances, which can sometimes feature dozens of artists on stage at once.
“It really impressed me a lot how in a blink of an eye they change their patterns, they change formation, it is always very precise,” she said.
“This confirmed their accuracy—the number of artists who could be on stage—and it was still very clear and precise.”
