OTTAWA, Canada—Professor Cyril Dabydeen, who has seen Shen Yun Performing Arts several times, said that each time he sees the show “something new comes into my own spirit.”
At Shen Yun’s sold out opening in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon, the distinguished author, teacher, and former Poet Laureate of Ottawa said during the intermission that he felt a sense of transcendence.
“So far overall what is coming to me so beautifully is the sense of the divine, the divine spirit and 5,000 years of Chinese culture and the quintessence of it, the singing of the soprano and the tenor, and of course the beautiful dance that we are seeing on stage. It is so overwhelming, so wonderfully beautiful.”
Others in Ottawa seem to have shared his enthusiasm. The full house gave a standing ovation, and standing room, which normally is made available only 30 minutes before a show, was sold out well in advance.
Prof. Dabydeen said that at previous Shen Yun shows he was more aware of the richness of traditional Chinese culture. But this time around “what has come to me more beautifully is the sense of the divine—the celestial spirit in all of us—that is really coming to me more forcefully than ever... Now, the finer points come to me, the embroidery of it all.”
“In January, the year 2010, you are seeing the sense of the divine, that beautiful spirit that brings us to a higher level of our existence—that comes to me in a marvellous way.”
He said he hoped others in the audience experienced his sense of being enriched by the performance, naming two pieces that he particularly enjoyed.
“The spring blossoms (Yellow Blossoms) and the embroidery dance (Elegant Embroidery)—they are so enriching for me personally and I hope the audience gets that too...”
With Canadian society being so materialistic, he said he also hopes the show “will really change our spirit, broaden our spirit” and help people appreciate “the great traditions of the Chinese civilization and the Chinese immigrants and people of Chinese background who are Canadians.”
Prof. Dabydeen praised the range and variety of Chinese culture as presented by Shen Yun, both in the music and the dance vocabulary. “[Shen Yun provides] the real richness of the Chinese culture.”
“I would like to personally thank the Chinese society and the richness of our Chinese people in Canada, it seems to me.”
He said he wants “the Prime Minister of Canada and the entire cabinet,” to see Shen Yun “because in every show there are human beings of great calibre.”
The great artistic traditions portrayed in the show “plus the divine all melded beautifully together,” he said, adding that “the divine sense of the transcendental,” of what is beyond the mundane, is what makes us human.
The show, he concluded, is “beautiful, it’s enriching, it’s marvellous, it’s quintessential.”
Reporting by NTDTV and Cindy Chan of The Epoch Times.
Shen Yun Performing Arts will play two more shows in Ottawa before moving on to Montreal where it will play at the Place Des Arts Jan. 15-17.
For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
At Shen Yun’s sold out opening in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon, the distinguished author, teacher, and former Poet Laureate of Ottawa said during the intermission that he felt a sense of transcendence.
“So far overall what is coming to me so beautifully is the sense of the divine, the divine spirit and 5,000 years of Chinese culture and the quintessence of it, the singing of the soprano and the tenor, and of course the beautiful dance that we are seeing on stage. It is so overwhelming, so wonderfully beautiful.”
Others in Ottawa seem to have shared his enthusiasm. The full house gave a standing ovation, and standing room, which normally is made available only 30 minutes before a show, was sold out well in advance.
Prof. Dabydeen said that at previous Shen Yun shows he was more aware of the richness of traditional Chinese culture. But this time around “what has come to me more beautifully is the sense of the divine—the celestial spirit in all of us—that is really coming to me more forcefully than ever... Now, the finer points come to me, the embroidery of it all.”
“In January, the year 2010, you are seeing the sense of the divine, that beautiful spirit that brings us to a higher level of our existence—that comes to me in a marvellous way.”
He said he hoped others in the audience experienced his sense of being enriched by the performance, naming two pieces that he particularly enjoyed.
“The spring blossoms (Yellow Blossoms) and the embroidery dance (Elegant Embroidery)—they are so enriching for me personally and I hope the audience gets that too...”
With Canadian society being so materialistic, he said he also hopes the show “will really change our spirit, broaden our spirit” and help people appreciate “the great traditions of the Chinese civilization and the Chinese immigrants and people of Chinese background who are Canadians.”
Prof. Dabydeen praised the range and variety of Chinese culture as presented by Shen Yun, both in the music and the dance vocabulary. “[Shen Yun provides] the real richness of the Chinese culture.”
“I would like to personally thank the Chinese society and the richness of our Chinese people in Canada, it seems to me.”
He said he wants “the Prime Minister of Canada and the entire cabinet,” to see Shen Yun “because in every show there are human beings of great calibre.”
The great artistic traditions portrayed in the show “plus the divine all melded beautifully together,” he said, adding that “the divine sense of the transcendental,” of what is beyond the mundane, is what makes us human.
The show, he concluded, is “beautiful, it’s enriching, it’s marvellous, it’s quintessential.”
Reporting by NTDTV and Cindy Chan of The Epoch Times.
Shen Yun Performing Arts will play two more shows in Ottawa before moving on to Montreal where it will play at the Place Des Arts Jan. 15-17.
For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
