OTTAWA, Canada—Chela Breckon, a business owner and consultant, drove two hours from outside of the city to see Shen Yun Performing Arts at the National Arts Centre on April 20.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception in 2006, Shen Yun’s mission has been to revive traditional Chinese culture and show audiences the beauty of “China before communism.”
“This performance is definitely expressing the importance of honouring the past and what has occurred and the beauty among cultures and communities as they’ve been able to intermingle and support each other in community, villages, subsistence,” Ms. Breckon said.
“This presentation about the divine arriving on earth is such a wonderful message now. As we entangle with humanity and what we’re facing across all borders and different political agendas, this is a beautiful expression of how humanity can really lead the conversation and art and beauty and the tenderness of that is so well expressed on the dance here tonight.”
Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in spirituality. However, since the atheist Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, the spiritual elements of Chinese culture were abolished, and followers of faith are persecuted. Shen Yun depicts both the spirituality in traditional Chinese culture and the persecution that is currently ongoing in modern-day China.“I was deeply moved [by] this performance tonight [and by] the story of people facing persecution, oppression,” Ms. Breckon said. “And yet the beauty of family and culture and tradition can overcome all of these things. And so it’s a beautiful reminder to go to emotion and to go to humanity even when things don’t make sense.”
Ms. Breckon believes that Shen Yun is a performance the world needs.
“This is our time to bring forward love in, however we can,” she said. “The history of culture and how people have been able to succeed and thrive in their families in the past is a gentle and very important reminder of what could be possible now.”
“Thank you for persevering and for pushing through the opposition ... and being courageous,” she said. “I celebrate the performance and the artistry and the directors that make this possible because this is activism in some way. It’s a beautiful, courageous act.”
