SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Did My Heart a World of Good,’ Says Former Dance Teacher

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MONTREAL, Canada—Former dance teacher Marie-Josée Lareau saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at Théâtre Maisonneuve Place des Arts on April 19 and described it as “divine.”

“It’s really wonderful,” said Mrs. Lareau. “There’s so much grace in this show. It’s divine. There’s no other word for it. It’s really impressivethe quality of the movements and the heart. You can feel the heart they put into every movement. It’s a thing of beauty.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Now, with eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously every year, Shen Yun is carrying out its mission to revive the authentic traditional Chinese culture and the beauty of China before communism.

Mrs. Lareau said she could feel the performers’ dedication to their art and praised their synchronicity.

“I really feel they’re fully invested,” she said. “It’s as if they’re completely present. It’s a beautiful union between them. I think they’re breathing at the same speed. It’s very deep, their connection.”

She noted that “there’s a real cohesion between them [that] goes beyond movement and dance. ... There’s something really inspiring about it.”

Other elements of Shen Yun’s performance that impressed Mrs. Lareau included the dancers’ technique, the handmade costumes, and the integration of Shen Yun’s animated backdrop with the performers on the stage. The patented system allows the performers to appear to move seamlessly between the stage and the background.

“Their technique is completely extraordinary. It’s unequaled perfection,” Mrs. Lareau said. “It’s almost wordless. One wonders how many hours they train to achieve something so pure, so beautiful, and so graceful. Their costumes are very colorful, very pretty. It’s beautiful. What impressed me most, I think, was the synchronization with the screen background.”

Shen Yun performs with a full-size live orchestra that combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments.
“The fact that the orchestra is live brings such vivacity to the movementsa feeling that is amplified by this connection between music and dance,“ said Mrs. Lareau. ”It’s truly magnificent.”

According to the performing arts company’s website, Shen Yun’s name means “the beauty of divine beings dancing.” Mrs. Lareau said she felt “the whole show is designed in a way that makes you feel the divine behind everything.”

She also shared what Shen Yun’s performance conveyed to her and how it will have a lasting impression on her.

“Benevolence, grace, gratitude, the beauty of the divine, and how all this beauty can lead us to elevate ourselves [and] our souls,” she said.

“I‘d say my soul was lifted tonight, that it did my heart a world of good, and I’ll be carrying that message for a long time to come.”

Reporting by NTD and Wandi Zhu.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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