MISSISSAUGA, Canada—Writer Agnes Bristow is a fan of traditional culture, so it was only natural that she attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga on Jan. 22—Chinese New Year’s Eve.
“I thought the costumes were phenomenal. I thought the pacing of it was very good. I love the choreography, it has such a nice, gentle flow to everything, and I like the graphics,” she said after the performance.
“I think it’s very professional,” added Mrs. Bristow, who has seen Shen Yun several times and attended Sunday’s performance with her husband, Leif Bristow, a film producer and director, and their daughter, Brittany, an actress and dancer.
“I always enjoy the traditional Chinese culture. It’s really nice—it’s really refreshing to see that. I always, always enjoy it, and this year actually many family members come out to see it as well and they really enjoyed it.”
Mrs. Bristow co-wrote Blizzard, a 2003 movie starring Christopher Plummer, Whoopi Goldberg, and her daughter, Brittany.
She was particularly impressed by Shen Yun’s unique animated backdrops that often act as an extension of the pieces being played out on stage.
“I think it really adds so much character to the show, because you get more of a fuller picture of what’s going on.
“With the characters in the background and the way it transforms, like with the Monkey King you’ve got the mountain and the stone, and it just progressively comes, reaching out to the audience, and by the time it gets to the stage you see the real-life character emerge from that and I thought that was quite brilliantly done,” she said.
New York-based Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, aims to revive traditional Chinese culture through the performing arts—a culture largely destroyed over decades of communist rule in China.
Shen Yun endeavours to renew the ancient heritage through dance and music that is true to the culture’s deep spiritual essence with its values of compassion, propriety, wisdom, honour, and reverence for the gods and the heavens.
“I always find it fascinating, the whole concept of good and evil and the contradictions between those two forces, and I think the show depicts the good triumphing over the evil forces that compromise us and interfere with our ability to have happiness in our lives,” said Mrs. Bristow.
“I think that certainly is the message I get from the show, that if you have purity in your heart and your spirit and in the way you conduct life, that you will triumph in the end. That’s what I get from it and I think that’s a good message.”
She said the Chinese New Year “reminds me of that wonderful tradition of families getting together and that unity and togetherness of people and that celebration of culture and family. I think those things are really really important to us as human beings, to honour these things and celebrate, so I guess for me that’s really what it represents.”
Celebrating the occasion by enjoying Shen Yun in the company of so many Chinese people made her happy, she added.
“I think it’s wonderful, really enjoyed it, so I’m really glad we came.”
Reporting by Lisa Ou and Joan Delaney
Based in New York, Shen Yun tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture and stages performances of mainly classical Chinese dance. The Shen Yun International Company, one of Shen Yun’s three equally large companies, will next perform in the Detroit Opera House, Detroit, through Jan. 29.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
