HAMILTON, ON—Florrie McGuirl, an impressive woman with an impressive family, said she was impressed by Shen Yun Performing Arts’ presentation at Hamilton Place Theatre on Wednesday night.
Her husband started an international NGO with two friends that now reaches over 100 countries, and her daughter is a crown prosecutor who also works with the United Nations to crack down on human smuggling.
Mrs. McGuirl herself is a music teacher at a studio, has written a musical, develops curriculum and trains teachers in her work as a Christian education director, organizes music for her church, while helping her husband in his non-profit work.
She received a much-deserved luxury that evening with her husband and daughter when the whole family saw Shen Yun, joining a full house as the dance company and its East-meets-West orchestra took a journey through China’s rich traditional culture.
“The choreography was excellent, and the colour. The dancers were superb. Extremely well-prepared and well-executed all the way through,” said Mrs. McGuirl after the show.
“It was beautiful to see how the choreography worked. ... Things were done in a way that you didn’t quite expect.
One aspect of the show she focused on was Shen Yun’s unique symphony orchestra which combines both classical Chinese and Western instruments.
“It was nice to hear the influence of Chinese music but also the influence of the western classical music sort of woven together. That was beautiful,” she said.
“It was a nice blend of score because you had a feel of the Chinese music, but it was still very classical as we know it in North America.”
She said she similarly enjoyed the singing, noting that Shen Yun’s vocal soloists sang in a very classical style.
“It was beautifully done. The pianist was fantastic and the singers were extremely well-polished, very technically trained, and yet they had a lot of emotional power in their singing.”
Although Shen Yun stages a large company of dancers at each of its shows, Mrs. McGuirl said she thought there must have been even more dancers involved judging by the sheer numbers on stage at any given time.
“Obviously those who were there, were changing quickly behind the scenes for each of these dances. ... They did such a beautiful job.”
But besides what was in Shen Yun, Mrs. McGuirl said she also appreciated what was not in Shen Yun.
“The choreography was excellent ... just [the] skill of these dancers was exciting to watch and one of the things that I enjoyed too was that it was such a clean program,” she said.
“So often programs like this can get spoiled by sexual innuendos and concentration on that aspect of it, and this just didn’t go there. I really appreciated that because its something you can really bring anyone to and enjoy, even the young children.”
“Well worth the evening,” praised Mrs. McGuril.
Shen Yun will wrap up its shows in Hamilton shows Thursday afternoon and then go on to stages in Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, and Toronto. For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
Her husband started an international NGO with two friends that now reaches over 100 countries, and her daughter is a crown prosecutor who also works with the United Nations to crack down on human smuggling.
Mrs. McGuirl herself is a music teacher at a studio, has written a musical, develops curriculum and trains teachers in her work as a Christian education director, organizes music for her church, while helping her husband in his non-profit work.
She received a much-deserved luxury that evening with her husband and daughter when the whole family saw Shen Yun, joining a full house as the dance company and its East-meets-West orchestra took a journey through China’s rich traditional culture.
“The choreography was excellent, and the colour. The dancers were superb. Extremely well-prepared and well-executed all the way through,” said Mrs. McGuirl after the show.
“It was beautiful to see how the choreography worked. ... Things were done in a way that you didn’t quite expect.
One aspect of the show she focused on was Shen Yun’s unique symphony orchestra which combines both classical Chinese and Western instruments.
“It was nice to hear the influence of Chinese music but also the influence of the western classical music sort of woven together. That was beautiful,” she said.
“It was a nice blend of score because you had a feel of the Chinese music, but it was still very classical as we know it in North America.”
She said she similarly enjoyed the singing, noting that Shen Yun’s vocal soloists sang in a very classical style.
“It was beautifully done. The pianist was fantastic and the singers were extremely well-polished, very technically trained, and yet they had a lot of emotional power in their singing.”
Although Shen Yun stages a large company of dancers at each of its shows, Mrs. McGuirl said she thought there must have been even more dancers involved judging by the sheer numbers on stage at any given time.
“Obviously those who were there, were changing quickly behind the scenes for each of these dances. ... They did such a beautiful job.”
But besides what was in Shen Yun, Mrs. McGuirl said she also appreciated what was not in Shen Yun.
“The choreography was excellent ... just [the] skill of these dancers was exciting to watch and one of the things that I enjoyed too was that it was such a clean program,” she said.
“So often programs like this can get spoiled by sexual innuendos and concentration on that aspect of it, and this just didn’t go there. I really appreciated that because its something you can really bring anyone to and enjoy, even the young children.”
“Well worth the evening,” praised Mrs. McGuril.
Shen Yun will wrap up its shows in Hamilton shows Thursday afternoon and then go on to stages in Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, and Toronto. For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
