KITCHENER-WATERLOO, Canada—The warm praise from three ballet veterans offers an insightful glimpse into the calibre of performance the audience was treated to at the Shen Yun Performing Arts classical Chinese dance production at Centre in the Square on Wednesday night.
“The unison is remarkable and it is very, very well-rehearsed and well-trained, and very, very flexible with lovely lines,” said Dianne Long, a ballet instructor and choreographer who has been dancing for 28 years, remarked on the synchronicity of the dancers in the large-scale dances.
“Each dancer is able to create a beautiful line through their body, and the fact that the whole row of dancers was making that incredible beauty was wonderful.”
Ms. Long currently serves as artistic director at Perpetual Motion Youth Company, and for 27 years, until last August, was the principal of Cambridge Theatre Dance School, where she still teaches.
“It’s very creative. The costumes were beautiful, the costumes were lovely,” added Ms. Long.
After seeing a video of Shen Yun, Ms. Long was deeply impressed and arranged for group tickets to bring her school’s students and teachers to watch the performance as part of their learning and development of teaching practice.
New York-based Shen Yun tours the world every year with an all-new program of classical Chinese dance, Chinese ethnic and folk dance, and original songs and musical scores.
Its mission is to revive the traditional culture of China with its deep spiritual essence and moral values, all but lost today following decades of communist rule.
“The computerized background allowed so many new and innovative things that I hadn’t seen before,” Ms. Long noted, referring to the animated backdrops that provide vivid imagery behind the performers, extending the stage to other worlds and enhancing the experience of every piece.
The program features a number of story-based dances inspired by beloved myths and legends from ancient China, such as the tale of the Monkey King from the Chinese classic novel “Journey to the West.”
“I thought that it would really appeal to children. It was really playful,” Ms. Long said of the storytelling.
“They incorporated the screen with the live movement on stage,” she noted. “It was very, very impressive.”
“I have a better appreciation of what Chinese classical dance is now,” Ms. Long said. “It is a very graceful, very athletic art.”
‘It’s magic’
“It’s a show that you must see,” ballet teacher Lily Petru said. She added that she would tell other art lovers and her students about the show.
Ms. Petru, who hails from Romania, trained in ballet in Cambridge and has been dancing for 17 years and teaching for 6 years.
“There are a lot of aerial jumps. It’s not common in the Western classical [dance]. And the way they turn in the air, they are amazing. I love it,” she said, commenting on the highly technical movements involved in classical Chinese dance.
They include combinations of leaps, spins, tumbles, flips, and turns that are mastered by the performers through strict training in the extensive and systematic dance form that is distinctly Chinese.
She highlighted one of the dancers in a dance that told of the joyful antics of a group of young Buddhist monks. “Everything that he [did], it seemed effortless, it was just amazing.”
Shen Yun’s costumes also fascinated Ms. Petru, who especially noticed the Chinese “water sleeves”—an extra length of silk that allows the dancers to convey some of the loveliest expressions of the classical Chinese dance system.
Serving as an extension of a dancer’s arms, the silk lingers in the air after a movement is completed, giving an effect of trailing ripples or fluttering wings.
“The long sleeves were the most impressive. How fast they grab and they release, and the shape when they lift-it’s like you can see everything they want to describe with their sleeves,” Ms. Petru noted.
Ms. Petru also said she appreciated the introductions to each performance piece, given by masters of ceremonies Jing Xie and Ben Freed.
“They present each [dance] so you can have an idea of the story,” she said. “Really nice, really helpful. … It is educational at the same time because you can learn about the Chinese culture.”
“It’s magic,” Ms. Petru said of Shen Yun. “I’m happy I came to the show.”
‘Amazing’
Emily Balaban was among the enthusiastic audience at Shen Yun on Wednesday night. Ms. Balaban is a 20-year veteran ballet dancer who is now studying architecture at the University of Waterloo.
“I think it is amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it. There are so many things. The steps they do are just so different and the jumps they do are incredible, the formations that all the dancers make together are really great,” she said.
The costumes and music also impressed Ms. Balaban.
“I think the costumes are amazing. I’ve never seen so many ways to layer fabric that create all different kinds of forms, and they were beautiful. I loved the costumes.”
The Shen Yun production features the fusion of a Western orchestra with classical Chinese instruments like the erhu and pipa to produce a fresh and unexpected sound.
“The music was interesting because I’ve never heard an orchestra with that variety of instruments before, so I definitely liked listening to the music too,” she added.
“I caught myself peeking at [the orchestra] a few times to see if I could tell what was playing. Some of those sounds I’ve never heard before.”
Ms. Balaban said she would encourage her friends to come and see Shen Yun.
“It is a spectacle of culture. It’s colourful, it’s energetic,” she said.
Reporting by Cindy Chan
The Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will now head to Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts for a five-show run from Jan. 12 to 15, followed by another five-show run at Mississauga’s Living Arts Centre from Jan. 19 to 22.
For more information, please visit www.shenyunperformingarts.org.
