Shen Yun Performing Arts, the acclaimed classical Chinese dance group, normally arrives in Toronto in the heart of winter, offering an oasis of colour in an otherwise bleak season.
But a shift in New York-based Shen Yun’s world tour has the group arriving as a herald of spring, as the grass turns a brighter shade of green and leaves emerge on the trees.
After a tour through Europe, Shen Yun’s International Company (one of four equally large Shen Yun companies currently on tour) opens the Eastern Canada leg of its world tour in Toronto on Thursday, April 21, beginning a 20-show run across seven cities in Ontario and Quebec.
Audiences attending the European shows gave Shen Yun warm reviews.
Haute couture designer Fabiano Desplat called the performance “an explosion of colours” after seeing Shen Yun at the Palais des Congrès de Paris on April 15.
“I’m really deeply moved by this show. It’s very creative, very daring,” said Mr. Desplat. He said the performance dazzled him with its colours, creativity, and originality.
Famed Danish novelist Svend Aage Madsen saw Shen Yun at the Music House Aarhus in Denmark the week before and described it as “powerful.”
“I enjoyed it very much. I was very much impressed,” he said.
Shen Yun presents mainly classical Chinese dance, a tradition that has been passed down and enriched for thousands of years in China, dynasty after dynasty.
Many of the dances tell stories form Chinese history, or from beloved literary works. It’s an effort aimed at preserving 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture. This is the founding mission of Shen Yun.
It’s a mission made more important by the modern history of China, where a communist revolution in 1949 began a series of political campaigns aimed at replacing traditional Chinese culture with communist ideology.
At the International Company’s April 5 performance in Vienna, Austria, Gerlinde von Spannring, a professor of art and culture, said she now regrets not having studied traditional Chinese culture.
“I’m so fortunate to see this breathtaking performance. It was so fascinating that at times I did not dare to breathe,” she said.
“This is the first time I have seen something this wonderful. Chinese culture is beautiful.”
Shen Yun will present five shows at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts before continuing on to Mississauga and then Montreal.
Reporting by NTD Television and Epoch Times
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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.
