Ex-Tallahassee Ballet President Mesmerized by Shen Yun’s Dance and Culture
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Jonathan Waters and Eva Santianni attended Shen Yun’s performance at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on the evening of March 28, 2026. Charlie Lu/The Epoch Times
TORONTO—On the evening of March 28, Jonathan Waters, CTO and co-founder of a technology company based in Florida, attended the second performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with Eva Santianni, a retired teacher.
The couple had also seen Shen Yun at the same venue last year and returned this year to experience the performance again.
A lifelong ballet lover, Mr. Waters previously served as president of the Tallahassee Ballet in Florida and remains a board member. He enthusiastically shared his admiration for Shen Yun’s technical brilliance: “I really appreciate the high-tech elements used in the Shen Yun program. From a technology standpoint, what Shen Yun does is totally amazing!”
He added that the artistry of Shen Yun is also “totally amazing.”
Ms. Santianni similarly expressed her admiration for Shen Yun’s dance: “I was completely captivated by the performances, especially the water sleeve dance. The dancers’ movements were so graceful—the long sleeves flow out, and the dancers then catch them with precision. It’s truly an incredible skill.”
She particularly highlighted the story of a Taoist deity, where the actor transforms from an elderly man into a youthful figure in an instant.
Mr. Waters added his own reaction of astonishment, saying, “I was absolutely blown away when I saw that scene—it just grabs you and holds you.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of China’s divinely inspired heritage and share with audiences the beauty of China before communism.
Reflecting on the spiritual dimension of the performance, Mr. Waters remarked, “I can feel the spiritual essence, including the return of the Creator. The content is so wonderful, and that’s why we came back to see Shen Yun again.”
Ms. Santianni wholeheartedly agreed, adding, “What strikes me most is that we cannot understand why communism would suppress people’s spiritual pursuits. There’s nothing wrong with faith or spirituality.”
For thousands of years, Chinese culture was deeply rooted in spirituality—a core thread woven into its art, philosophy, and daily life. In recent decades, however, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party and its promotion of atheism drastically altered this landscape. On stage, Shen Yun vividly brings this contrast to life through its dance stories, evoking powerful emotion and reflection from audiences worldwide, including Mr. Waters.
“I’ve been to museums in China, and you can see that after communism came to power, the spiritual realm in China is completely blank,” he recalled. “Faith and spiritual belief have been entirely suppressed. This is what I witnessed firsthand.”
