HAMILTON, Canada—For company owner Craig Cooper, seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at Hamilton Place on Saturday evening was an eye-opening, jaw-dropping experience. 

“Just amazing,” he said after the Jan. 11 performance. “I loved it.”

“I’m amazed by the way they can dance, the costumes, and the music is fantastic.”

Mr. Cooper, who attended the performance with his wife, Lillian, and mother-in-law, Anna, is the owner of a successful sign manufacturing company that designs commercial signage for corporations such as Ebay, Gillette, and Capital One. 

He said watching Shen Yun was like seeing China’s 5,000-year history play out right before his eyes.

“You feel like you’re there!” he said, adding that the masters of ceremonies’ introduction of each dance piece helped him understand its meaning.

“It gave you the history—an amazing history,” he said.

New York-based Shen Yun is a world-renowned classical Chinese dance and music company that aims to revive China’s divinely inspired culture through the performing arts. 

Lillian was thrilled by Shen Yun’s story-based classical Chinese dance, which captures the essence of the ancient culture centred upon principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, and reverence toward the divine, as explained on the Shen Yun website. 

She also gave warm praise to the performers for their skill and grace.

“It was amazing, so nice to see them flowing and moving,” she said. 

“I loved it, it was wonderful.”

Mr. Cooper was also impressed with the athleticism displayed in classical Chinese dance. 

“The dancing, the flips and the moves are fantastic, I’m amazed,” he said.

Anna was nearly moved to tears by the beauty of the performance.

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” she said. “It takes my heart. I enjoyed it so much I could just cry, the way it makes me feel.”

Each dance piece is performed with the accompaniment of Shen Yun’s unique orchestra that includes an acclaimed combination of classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments. 

Mr. Cooper was moved by the sound of the two-stringed “erhu.” Also known as the “Chinese violin,” the erhu is particularly expressive and known for its sombre and stirring tone. 

“That was fantastic,” he said. “The tone and everything just feels good—the sound of it, the feel of it is great.”

Mr. Cooper highly recommended the show and said he would gift tickets to his friends who have an adopted young Chinese daughter, to help her learn about her ancestral culture. 

“She’s 8 years old so that would be an interesting history for [her],” he said. “It would be fantastic.”

Reporting by Allen Zhou and Justina Wheale

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 Hamilton for one more show Sunday before going on to Kitchener-Waterloo. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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.