SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Really, Really Changed My Life,’ Says Musician

Apr 20, 2024

MONTREAL, Canada—Musician Joanne Tokessy saw Shen Yun Performing Arts a year ago and her life was changed forever.

Fast forward one year later, and Ms. Tokessy is back in the theater to see the renowned classical Chinese dance company’s all-new 2024 production. At Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts on Apr. 18, Ms. Tokessy recounted how Shen Yun impacted her life after attending the performance a year earlier.

“I was blessed here,” she said. “I got better physically. I went through a bit of a bad time. But then it was like something happened, and my whole life changed. It was a miracle last year that I experienced.”

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. Today, it has grown to eight equally sized companies that tour the world simultaneously every year, carrying out its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture and the beauty of China before communism.

Ms. Tokessy said that since watching Shen Yun last year, her health has improved. Through Shen Yun, she learned about Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. And she said that after reading Falun Dafa’s main text, “Zhuan Falun,” she felt her life “physically, mentally, spiritually, has just been put higher.”

“I just got my life force back,” said Ms. Tokessy. “My heart’s been filled. ... So much love and compassion and understanding and kindness, just to see people in a different light too, you know.”

This year the calmness and energy in Shen Yun’s performance touched Ms. Tokessy, who said that she believed she had seen angels flying in the theater. Ms. Tokessy also shared the message she saw in Shen Yun’s 2024 production.

“This year, I just found that [they] were really sending out a message of love ... because the message of love is what needs to be sent out at this time,” she said. “This show was more about success, and ... you can’t have success without love, kindness, and compassion.”

Ms. Tokessy said she felt enveloped in motherly affection throughout the performance and from the music.

“It was like I was coming home,” she said. “[It felt like] somebody on my shoulder going, ‘It’s OK, take this music and let it soothe you, let it love you.’ It was almost like my mother was rocking me.”

“It just really, really grabbed me into profound melancholy ... I was thinking I was home in my crib or something as a child.”

Ms. Tokessy credits Shen Yun and Falun Dafa for all of the positive events that have occurred in her life since last year and believes that others can benefit from seeing the performance, too.

“People really need to come and see this ... because this show is saving lives,” said Ms. Tokessy.

She had a heartfelt message for Shen Yun’s performers as well.

“I‘d like to thank you all. What you do and the heart and the soul that you put into your performances is just outstanding. ... I’d like to thank everybody in the orchestra for doing such an extraordinary job, and the beautiful singers and the dancers in the whole troupe. You really, really, really changed my life. So I'd like to thank you all for that, and may we all be blessed today and every day.”

Reporting by Dongyu Teng and Wandi Zhu.