Instructor in Combat Skills Amazed at Shen Yun Martial Arts Dances
Apr 07, 2024
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Kathy (L) and Quincy Mutter attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto on April 6, 2024. (Wang Li/The Epoch Times)
TORONTO—Shen Yun Performing Arts performed before an enchanted audience at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Toronto on April 6.
Kathy Mutter and her daughter Quincy Mutter expressed their deep impressions of the show after seeing Shen Yun.
“It was beautiful. I laughed, I cried,” said the younger Ms. Mutter, a martial arts instructor. “There were some fun, silly stories, like the restaurant story. Then the ones in more modern times with communism really got to me,” she added.
She learned a lot about the traditional culture of China, she said. And what really got to her was a story-based dance about the persecution of a faith group in modern-day China that put a girl and her police officer brother at odds with each other.
“When you look back at history, it’s easy to imagine how you could get caught up and be stuck on either side, [such as] when it divided the siblings. That really got to me,” Ms. Quincy Mutter said.
“I’ve never been to China, but I can see how it happens [there], the way the recent years have been here,” she said. “It’s been strange times and there has been a lot of division in our society, so I hope that we continue to walk the path of freedom, and I hope that China finds their way back there as well.”
Her mother, Ms. Kathy Mutter, was very impressed with Shen Yun’s finale. “I thought it was amazing. The choreography was great. The dancers were all in sync,” she said.
“I did dancing for many, many years, so I could see that in the performance—the way their hands all went [the same way at the same time].”
Some of the dances enacted combat, and this fascinated Ms. Quincy Mutter, as one who practices and teaches martial arts to women and children and who has done stage combat herself.
“It was fun to watch. They made it beautiful,” she said, explaining that “it’s fun looking at it [martial arts] from a dance perspective.”
She was also impressed with how the performers on stage and the music from the live orchestra interacted with the 3D backdrop. “The music was beautiful. The way [they were] interactive with the screen behind—and the actors seemed to go in and out of the screen— was really cool.”
After enjoying the entire production, Ms. Quincy Mutter said she would recommend it to everyone. “If you’re on the fence about watching it, just watch it,” she said. “It was really cool.”
David Berger attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto on April 6, 2024. (Wang Li/The Epoch Times)
Shen Yun Shows Real Traditional Chinese Culture, Says Company CEO
David Berger, CEO of a manufacturing company, said he loved the performance.
“I think the show is absolutely fantastic. Between the acrobats, the dancing, and the storyline, I thought it’s been great.”
He enjoyed how the dancers used their long sleeves in a dance called “Sleeves of Grace.” I love the costumes and all the different attributes that the costumes had, from the long sleeves to the fans. I thought everything that they used with it was great.”
The live orchestra also earned his praise. “The music was incredible—it was really, really nice,” he said.
Through classical Chinese dance and music, Shen Yun is sharing with the world the beauty of China’s 5,000 years of history and culture, steeped in reverence for the divine, before communism and its atheistic ideology took hold. Since the company’s founding in 2006, it has received worldwide accolades for its mission to revive the authentic traditional Chinese culture.
Mr. Berger said he acquired new insights about traditional culture. “I’m not an expert on Chinese culture, but I have to say I think that everything that they explained really gave a highly educational background.”
As Shen Yun is reviving the old traditions of Chinese culture before communism, the dancing was the most engaging, Mr. Berger said. “My biggest takeaway, I’m going to say, is the dancing. I think the culture and the dancing is something that I would take away [for] myself.”
“I’ve been to China many, many times for work, and I just think that everything that they’re doing is something that I think is important. They’re explaining it, and I think everyone should get it,” he said.
