MONTREAL—Angela Codina had high praise for Shen Yun Performing Arts as a visual feast after seeing the premier classical Chinese dance production at Place des Arts on Friday night.
“Absolutely beautiful, I think visually it’s a gorgeous performance and I think it’s beautiful to watch and I love it! That’s why I’m here,” said Ms. Codina.
Ms. Codina, a legal consultant and immigration counselor who speaks seven languages, is president, owner, and founder of Codina International, a leading immigration firm with offices in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.
“All of the dances are beautiful and each one has a story to tell, but I think just generally when you have all of the group dancers together, and the choreography, I think that creates a spectacular visual effect,” Ms. Codina said.
New York-based Shen Yun was founded in 2006 with a mission of reviving the genuine traditional culture of China, an ancient heritage spanning 5,000 years of history but whose moral and spiritual essence has been all but completely lost under decades of communist rule.
Each year the company tours the globe with an all-new production of classical Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dances, and all-original songs and musical scores performed by dancers, vocalists, and musicians selected among the top artists in the world.
Ms. Codina applauded the performances by the dancers.
Noting that the “male dancing is gorgeous too,” she especially highlighted how much she enjoyed the dances by the female dancers.
“I think the female dancing is just very elegant and refined,” she said. “There’s a delicacy in the female dancing. … I think that creates a very beautiful effect.”
She commended the overall production: “I think everything was absolutely beautiful, and I think the combination of everything with the music, the costumes, and the group dancing, that makes it very attractive. Every single piece that was performed was excellent.”
‘I was truly captivated!’
The show similarly impressed Charles Renaud, a civil engineer, and Nadine Hupperetz, a food broker.
“It’s beautiful, it’s really beautiful,” said Ms. Hupperetz. “The colours are spectacular, the costumes, everything is beautiful.”
“The colours, it dazzles me! The dancing is really fantastic! It’s really beautiful,” Mr. Renaud agreed. “It is graceful, it’s light,” he added.
Ms. Hupperetz said she was at first astonished by the interactions between the figures in the backdrops and the dancers on the stage. Animated digital scenery projected behind the performers provides stunning imagery that synchronizes with each piece.
“I liked it very much when the characters come down and suddenly appear on stage, it is good. The first time it is surprising!” she said.
“It’s amazing,” said Mr. Renaud. “It’s always a continuous flow, the layout is very good.”
He commented on the dances: “The choreography, the sequence is like a mechanism that is bathed in oil, it continues, you get bewitched!”
Mr. Renaud explained more about how the sequences made him feel.
“At a given time, one feels like there isn’t enough breath left, another time one gets the impression that the scene is so big, it is huge, they turn, they fly, they fly to right to left, I was truly captivated!” he said.
Ms. Hupperetz said she also found the music moving.
Shen Yun features a full orchestra that is one of a kind in its fusion of traditional Chinese and Western instruments.
Like the dances, the music of Shen Yun fully expresses the grace and virtues inherent in ancient Chinese culture, with its values of compassion, honour, propriety, wisdom, sincerity, and reverence for the gods and the heavens.
“It’s emotional, spiritual, it touches us deep inside, and it has sound that feels like they touch our internal fibres,” added Mr. Renaud.
‘It’s very heartwarming’
Jeff Vaillancourt, a pilot training specialist, was also among the enthusiastic audience at Shen Yun on Friday night.
“It’s great, I think it’s very wonderful, colourful, bright, more than I expected,” he said.
“It’s very heartwarming,” he added.
‘This is really the Chinese culture’
Lynn Duranceau, a project manager who works for the City of Montreal, attended the show after her mother saw Shen Yun a previous year and told her “it was really, really good.”
“I think it’s pretty amazing,” said Ms. Duranceau. “I can see how this is really the Chinese culture, the way everything is so precise, and the colours.”
She added, “The performance is exact, and the dancers are very good, very talented.”
With a collection of 22 short performance pieces, Shen Yun takes viewers on a historical journey across China’s vast land area and diverse dynasties.
“What’s interesting is all these little clips, so it’s like little stories you can easily follow,” Ms. Duranceau said.
She especially appreciated the introductions to each piece by the masters of ceremonies, Jing Xie and Ben Freed.
“That makes it even better because the Chinese culture can be very complicated—complicated in the sense that there are so many details, so many things, it’s very rich, but it’s multiple. So it makes it easier to follow in that sense,” she said.
“It gives you an insight into traditional China … It’s a nice glimpse into the China culture which is important.”
With reporting by NTD Television, Donna He, Xinxin Teng, Matthew Little, and Cindy Chan
Shen Yun has three equally large companies touring the world with an all-new program each year. Each company has its own orchestra and vocal soloists. Shen Yun’s International Company will be in Montreal until Jan. 8 and then continue on to Kitchener, Ontario.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
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