MONTREAL, Canada—Joann Pham was lucky enough to be visiting Montreal from the U.S. when Shen Yun Performing Arts came to town, so she took in the show at Place des Arts on April 30.
“The show is amazing. It’s wonderful,” said Ms. Pham, an optometrist.
“The dancing is beautiful, and all the history and the culture I did not know—it was very impressive.”
Ms. Pham was accompanied by her boyfriend Michel Parise, who works in real estate.
“I do enjoy this show a lot. For me it’s the first time. I don’t know a lot about this culture but I do appreciate it a lot. The costumes are very nice, and the dance also. My favourite one was the monkey,” he said, referring to the story-dance “Monkey King and the Dragon Palace.”
“My favourite was the drum dance, the Mongolian drum dance. It was very, very cool,” said Ms. Pham. “I like drums, I like percussion, and the male dance is very cool.”
Shen Yun’s mission is to bring about a renaissance of traditional Chinese culture, the essence and inherent spirituality of which were all but destroyed after the emergence of communism in China.
“I think the spirituality is beautiful. I think the spirituality is great. We lose a lot of that today so the message behind it is beautiful,” said Ms. Pham.
“Peace, compassion, tolerance—I think it’s great. Unfortunately we lose that [in today’s world] so it’s nice to see it.”
The spiritual aspect of the performance and the revival of the culture also resonated with Mr. Parise.
“Well for me, where we come from it will always be important. You can’t deny where you come from and I think the past will leave you your future. You don’t want to lose that. It’s beautiful. It’s history and it tells you who you are.”
