TORONTO—Painter Julie Lessard had warm praise for Shen Yun Performing Arts after seeing the acclaimed New York-based classical Chinese dance and music company perform at the Sony Centre on Saturday.
“I loved it. It was well worth it. I’d definitely come back next year. It was phenomenal,” said the artist, who does realistic art and scenery painting.
Shen Yun was formed by a group of leading classical Chinese artists in 2006 with the aim of reviving China’s divinely inspired culture.
While at the heart of Shen Yun is classical Chinese dance, the dance company also rounds out its performances with ethnic and folk dances from different regions across the vast land of China.
A unique feature of Shen Yun is its animated backdrop, a technological innovation that interacts with the dancers on stage and the music played by the orchestra in seamless and at times surprising ways.
“The dancers and the scenes and the way the scenes were enacted in the back, and just everything about it … the fluidity of the dancers, it was really good,” said Ms. Lessard.
Shen Yun performances also feature some 400 colourful handmade costumes, a unique orchestra that combines classical Western instruments with traditional Chinese instruments, and award-winning vocalists who sing Chinese text using the bel canto operatic style.
Ms. Lessard said she found the backdrop sceneries to be excellent, the costumes to be beautiful, and the vocalists to be phenomenal. She said she appreciated the variety in the performance.
“It was nice to have … from the dancers to the singers and the instrumentalists,” she said.
“I’m just really impressed with the whole show.”
With reporting by NTD Television and Omid Ghoreishi
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 Toronto until Jan. 26. 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.
