MONTREAL, Canada—Business owners braved the chilly January weather to gather at Place des Arts on Monday night to take in the opening performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts. 

Gladys Dao, who owns a local Lebanese restaurant, said Shen Yun was unlike anything she had experienced before. 

“It is very very interesting, it is really beautiful, it’s different,” she said. “It’s very very good.”

Ms. Dao was awed by the graceful expression of classical Chinese dance, which she said made the dancers appear almost weightless. 

“You would say they are floating,” she said, adding the dancer’s costumes were stunning.

“The costumes were excellent, the colours and the fabrics were very rich and very well made.” 

New York-based Shen Yun was formed in 2006 with a mission to revive 5,000 years of divinely-inspired Chinese culture through the performing arts.

Ms. Dao said she gained a deeper understanding of the traditional culture from Shen Yun’s story-based classical Chinese dance and folk dance.

“I am starting to understand, starting to learn what it is about,” she said. 

Chiropractor Jean-Pierre Morisset, who owned a chiropractic clinic in Montreal for over 35 years, was also in attendance for the Jan. 6 performance.

He was struck by the unique colour combinations used in the costumes and digitally animated backdrops.

“The costumes are wonderful, it was a lot of colours!” he said.

“They mixed orange and green, which still worked very well together—We would not think of that here.”

Mr. Morisset said watching Shen Yun made him feel as if he went on a journey through China’s ancient dynasties. 

“I feel like I travelled tonight,” he said.

Reporting by Nathalie Dieul and Justina Wheale. 

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s World Company will perform in Montreal until Jan. 9 before going on to Hamilton. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.