TORONTO—Jayne Hobbs and Bob Simpson saw the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra’s concert late last year and enjoyed the unique orchestra’s performance so much that they decided to come back and see Shen Yun Performing Arts’ classical Chinese dance production as well. 

New York-based Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, travels the globe each year staging exhilarating performances that are both aesthetically beautiful and culturally rich. 

Outside the regular dance performance season starting in late December each year, Shen Yun’s unique orchestra holds its own concerts, which so far have only been held in North America. It is an orchestra that combines traditional Chinese instruments with Western instruments. 

“It is wonderful, it’s a beautiful show. We saw the orchestra version later last year and this is a wonderful follow-up. Just lovely, very enjoyable. From costumes to the dances, very, very well put out,” said Ms. Hobbs, an associate publisher for Active Life Magazine, praising the dance and music performance at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday evening. 

The many different unique features of Shen Yun all worked together to leave a high impression on Ms. Hobbs.

“A combination of the screen in the back and the dancers, and the blending with the fantasy, and then from fantasy to reality and back to fantasy again, I thought it was beautifully done. The costumes, of course, they’re just fantastic,” she said. 

“I’m a colour person—I love colour—the colour and coordination with the backgrounds from the pinks to the corals to the greens, it was just fabulous.”

Watching Shen Yun, one gets a feeling of inner peace, Ms. Hobbs added. 

According to the Shen Yun website, “Through the universal language of music and dance, Shen Yun weaves a wondrous tapestry of heavenly realms, ancient legends, and modern heroic tales, taking you on a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese culture. Its stunning beauty and tremendous energy leave audiences uplifted and inspired.”

“The wonderful elegance of the dance and the beauty ... also the formation of peace within—I think it’s just lovely. I’m just enjoying it very much,” Ms. Hobbs said. 

Mr. Simpson, who is now retired, also felt peacefulness through the show, conveyed through the dancers’ performance.

“It’s the peace and it’s ... tranquil in the meditation once you have the compassion and the thought for caring for others, and you’re getting that from the performance. The performers are doing that for the audience through their dancing,” Mr. Simpson said. 

“I found [Shen Yun] very enjoyable. The interaction between the screen and the dancers—like when they blend in, sort of disappear, [then] come up in the screen—was quite unique. The sort of precision that you see in their dancing, their all moving as one, that’s quite interesting, enjoyable, and the colours are magnificent. They light up your vision.”

Reporting by Madalina Hubert

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 Toronto until Jan. 26. 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.