HAMILTON, Canada—Alison McCarthy has been dancing since she was a little girl. Her mother owns a dance school, so ballet came natural to little Alison. She is now 36 and has been dancing all her life, and has since joined her mother as a teacher at the dance school.
In the last two years, they, along with Alison’s sister Kathrine have been invited to choreograph dancers for Team Canada from the junior, senior and children’s teams. “We’ve had world champions,” said her mother Lynne McCarthy who owns The McCarthy School of Dance.
The two were in the audience for Shen Yun Performing Arts’ Sunday night show at the Hamilton Place theatre and were taking notes on the choreography.
“You observe other choreography to maybe use in your own,” explained Lynne.
They were observing the patterning of the dance, their movements and gestures, and particularly noted the way the dancers synchronize.
“It’s difficult. They have to work hard at that,” she said. “Very, very difficult to accomplish and it’s a lot of energy and a lot of stamina they need to keep it up.”
“I mean they’re standing on one leg with the leg in the air and looking pretty. It is hard to do ... They have to practice a lot,” she said.
New York based Shen Yun features colourful performances of classical Chinese dance and music. Classical Chinese dance, is alongside ballet, one of the most comprehensive dance systems in the world. It requires rigorous and systematic training in form, techniques and bearing, and its rich history have also allowed it to develop a very expressive quality.
Alison noted how graceful and in control of every movement the dancers were. She expanded on all the different ways that she could appreciate Shen Yun.
