TORONTO—Three friends with a passion for fashion and the arts came out to see Shen Yun Performing Arts stage its revival of 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture Friday night.

For Emy Song, who works in fashion, Shen Yun’s presentation at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts was a trip to paradise.

“It’s like I am in heaven. Feels like I am in heaven. It is so beautiful, I enjoyed it so much,” she said.

Her friend Babeth Sperlich, who once designed costumes for Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadien, had an eye for Shen Yun’s costumes that evening. 

“I love the movements with the long sleeves,” she said referring to the dance Delicate Beauty of the Han in which ladies wear long, flowing “water sleeves” that linger in the air, accentuating their movements.

The other friend is Hannah Hoppe, currently an elementary school teacher at the Hospital for Sick Children but looking forward to exploring fashion opportunities in her retirement. 

She said she really enjoyed Shen Yun and was intrigued by its vividly animated backdrops and how the scenes on them interacted with the dancers on the stage.

“I think the backdrops were really interesting and I really liked the effect of the characters coming from the backdrop on to the stage. I thought that was a very interesting effect,” said Ms. Hoppe.

With reporting by Matthew Little 

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s World Company will perform in Toronto until Jan. 26. For more information, visit: ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.