TORONTO—It was time for Ms. Natalya Selina and her husband, Mr. Hurwich, to go on a date. With three small children, that can be tough to do. But on Wednesday night they made their way to Sony Centre and saw Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“The show is very beautiful,” said Mr. Hurwich, the president of an internationally active company, during intermission. “They are doing a marvellous job, it’s very well done.” 

“I like the fact that each piece is a unique introspective of a period of time or a place or a piece of culture in and around China, so I find it quite beautiful and interesting,” he added. 

Ms. Selina said she'd be leaving the show happy that night.  

“The costumes are so beautiful and it’s technologically advanced too. The background is very unique,” said Ms. Selina.

Shen Yun’s state-of-the-art backdrop accompanies each performance, often interacting with the performers on stage and extending the stage to take audience members on a journey to the world of the story-dance being presented.  

Shen Yun also features hundreds of all-original, handmade costumes offering “an authentic presentation of the attire that comes from China’s divinely inspired traditional culture, and a consummate stage effect,” explains the Shen Yun website.

Ms. Selina was particularly impressed by the fact that she was not only watching a dance performance, but she was also learning about the history behind it. 

Established in 2006, Shen Yun has the mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. It features performances of Chinese dance, with classical Chinese dance at the core—one of the most comprehensive dance system in the world—along with Chinese ethnic dance and folk dance.  

“It’s very unique,” said Mr. Hurwich of the dance.

He was particularly impressed to see the general coordination of the dancers and the symmetry of the dancing in the large-scale dances. 

“I found that quite impressive ... to see so many people on stage moving in the same direction at the same time,” he said. “They have done a really great job.”

“You can see that they have put a lot of effort into it,” said his wife.  

Since its inception, Shen Yun has toured over 100 cities on five continents. Yet it is not allowed to be performed in China; the current communist regime has set out to systematically destroy traditional culture, which is rooted in spirituality.

“It’s sad to hear that they can’t actually perform in their own country where it comes from, all the history, but I am glad we get to see it here,” said Ms. Selina.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s International Company will perform in Toronto until Jan. 25. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

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.