TORONTO—“As always, the choreography, the music, and the performances were stellar,” Dean Baxendale, a publisher, said after attending Shen Yun’s fifth and final 2026 performance at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada, on June 28. A longtime admirer of Shen Yun, Mr. Baxendale attended the performance for the sixth time.

Mr. Baxendale particularly appreciated the company’s seamless integration of traditional artistry and modern technology.

“I think this is a great confluence of the culture, the music, the choreography, the costumes, the color, and the use of modern animation to bring forward the story,” he said. “It makes it very interactive for the audience as well.”

He said the artistic presentation makes Shen Yun unlike any other theatre production.

“It’s something very unique that you can’t see in any other kind of classical ballet or dance performance,” he said. “From that perspective, it’s beautiful, and it should be viewed by so many more people.”

Mr. Baxendale said he has long supported Shen Yun and worked to raise awareness after earlier performances in Toronto were canceled because of bomb threats.

“I’ve been a big supporter of Shen Yun,” the CEO of the China Democracy Foundation and Optimum Publishing International said. “As part of the media, I certainly made the situation very apparent to those in Ottawa and throughout the country—what the Chinese Communist Party had done to stop the performances with the bomb threats and to prevent this great cultural event and show from being seen by so many other Torontonians.”

“I’m glad that we’re able to bring it back,” he added.

Earlier this year, Shen Yun’s scheduled performances in Toronto were canceled after the theater received bomb threat emails that the police determined to be not credible. After the local presenter’s continued efforts, the company returned to the Four Seasons Centre in late June for five rescheduled performances.

As a publisher who closely follows developments in China, Mr. Baxendale said Shen Yun conveys an important message by telling stories through art.

“As a publisher who understands the depravity of the criminal regime in China, all of this helps, for me, to emphasize things that we know are going on,” he said. “I hope for the audience, it tells a story that needs to be told through the art, to let people know that there is a serious evil that is the Chinese Communist Party, and only by uniting all people from China can we be free once again.”

“I think, in terms of spirituality, if we look at the East—if we look at Buddhism, Taoism—and we look at Christianity, there are, of course, a lot of similarities with respect to how people view themselves within the context of the world,” he said.

“How individuals see their place in the world is really about giving back to humanity, giving back to society, and being more loving and giving toward our fellow human beings.”