SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is an Incredible Production, Says Professional Dancer, Choreographer

Apr 17, 2022

MONTREAL—Carmen Ruiz, a professional dancer, choreographer, and performing arts producer of many years, said there is a “wow” factor in Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“It’s beautiful. It’s really incredible, the level of synchronicity and also the level of expressiveness and athleticism of the artists,” said Ms. Ruiz after seeing Shen Yun at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montreal on April 16.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company and has a mission to revive China’s traditional culture, which has for decades been suppressed by the communist regime.

“For 5,000 years, divine culture flourished in the land of China. Through breathtaking music and dance, Shen Yun is reviving this glorious culture,” says Shen Yun’s website.

Ms. Ruiz said she could see a pursuit of divinity in the Shen Yun performance.

I see this spiritual power, and this quest for the divine.

— Carmen Ruiz

“All this bodywork, physical work, I see how they’re connected to something that’s just trying to connect with something bigger, and beyond what we understand in our everyday life,” she said. “I see this spiritual power, and this quest for the divine,” she said.

Ms. Ruiz added that she could appreciate the amount of hard work that went into creating Shen Yun.

“All that work is admirable. We know that it is hours and hours and hours of very disciplined work. So, bravo, and good achievement,” she said.

‘Universal Language’

Marc Lascelle, a manager in a Catholic organization, said Shen Yun is “quite a marvel from the beginning to the end.”

“It takes us into the joy,” he said. “It is especially the beauty and the ancient culture of China which is exemplified.”

Mr. Lascelle said he was moved by the performance, experiencing a range of emotions as he watched Shen Yun.

“It worked a lot on my emotions. ... It was not just the dance, but there were stories in the dances too,” he said, referring to the different storylines in each dance piece.

There are many elements that bring out the beauty in Shen Yun, Mr. Lascelle noted. This includes the dancers themselves and their story-based dances, the animated backdrops, and solo performances such as the music performed by the erhu soloist.

But beyond this, there were deep values in the performance that all audience members could understand, as it’s a “universal language,” he said.

“It’s a call to the soul to appreciate all these values through the understanding of beauty, the smooth movements. All these things there, they have symbolism. It’s also a metaphysical expressions,” he said.

“In a metaphysical way, it brings the world back to appreciate, have nostalgia for these beautiful things. ... It’s inspiring people and giving them a nostalgia and a desire for a return of those things.”

Reporting by NTD.

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