HAMILTON, Canada—It was only intermission, but construction company owner Ed Aitchison knew he had a home run with his Christmas present of tickets to Shen Yun Performing Arts for his artist girlfriend, Darlene Watson.
“We’re enjoying the show. It’s a great show. There’s lots of nice little stories,” he said.
“I love the colours. Great dancing … great stories,” said Ms. Watson, a painter. “I love it, I love it.”
Mr. Aitchison said he enjoyed how New York-based Shen Yun captured the history and evolution of China’s rich 5,000-year-old culture.
“It’s such an ancient, old history. There’s lots to tell,” he said. “It’s been a nice story from the beginning up through into the present. It’s all been enjoyable.”
Part of that history is told through Shen Yun’s animated backdrops, which sometimes show idyllic vistas from ancient China and at times interact with the dancers on the stage.
“There’s a real surprising beauty … It looks very beautiful,” he said of the scenic backdrops.
“The countryside does look amazing,” agreed Ms. Watson.
As a painter, Ms. Watson said she had been paying close attention to those visuals. “The perspective paintings and the backgrounds are really nice. I love them.”
She also highlighted the crystal-clad headdresses worn by the female dancers in some of the pieces and said that they inspired her to sketch something similar. One of the dances, titled My Beloved Yi Village, portrays young maidens from China’s Yi ethnic group dancing in embroidered headdresses while tapping out a steady beat on tasseled wooden boxes.
“I like the colours and I like the sound, the way that they made that little click sound,” she noted.
Beauty is often accompanied by humour in many of Shen Yun’s dances, and the couple said they found that entertaining.
Ms. Watson particularly enjoyed The Michevious Monks, a dance about a group of young monks having some fun while the abbot is away.
“That was fun, that was entertaining,” said Mr. Aitchison.
At the same time, he was also moved by the deeper implications of the dance.
“Very interesting, their sense of looking for peace, inner peace, with the Buddha and just trying to find themselves and be at one with themselves,” he said.
In addition to the dances and backdrops, another defining element of Shen Yun is its unique orchestra which combines classical Chinese and western instruments.
“Very good,” said Ms. Watson of the music.
“Yes, very good,”agreed Mr. Aitchison, adding that he also enjoyed Shen Yun’s vocal soloists. “The singing’s great, with the tenors. Very powerful, very powerful.”
Mr. Aitchison heard about Shen Yun from his brother, who found a flyer in a newspaper that he was reading. He kept the flyer hidden from his wife so that he could surprise her with tickets for Christmas. Both men ended up buying tickets.
Now concluded in Hamilton, Shen Yun will take one day off and begin a four-show run in Kitchener-Waterloo before carrying on to Montreal and Toronto.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun performing Arts. For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
