Shen Yun ‘Topical, Very Honest’: Former Newspaper Manager

[topic]VANCOUVER, Canada—American newspaper manager Cooper Walls said he appreciated how thought-provoking Shen Yun Performing Arts was after the show on Saturday evening.

Mr. Walls attended the performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and said he was pleasantly surprised by the profound concepts expressed through Shen Yun’s classical Chinese dance.

“I’ve been fascinated with Chinese culture for a long time and this has been a real treat,” he said.

“It was very, very honest—its topical for what is going on today.”

New York-based Shen Yun is a world-renowned classical Chinese dance company that aims to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, through the medium of classical Chinese dance.

According to the company’s website, classical Chinese dance was passed down from the ancients, preserved as a part of China’s semi-divine traditional culture.

Through its three main components of bearing, form, and technical skill, the dance system is able to bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, one’s value system, and other profound ideas.

Mr. Walls was particularly moved by a dance called The Choice, which tells the story of two friends whose loyalty faces the ultimate test when one is persecuted under a totalitarian regime.

“It talked about the things that happen when people have to confront things in their society that are not good, or that they disagree with, and the kind of repercussions that come about as a result,” he said.

“That part was a little bit of a wake up call—it makes you think about the consequences of your decisions.”

Mr. Walls ran a group of daily newspapers in Southeast Texas before immigrating to Canada in 2010.

He said he appreciated the entertainment value of Shen Yun, especially its trademark digital moving backdrops that can create the illusion of characters literally moving in and out of the background.

“They’re entertaining, the way that they’ve incorporated the [backdrops] into the live action. It was a little bit of a shock at first but I like it, it makes the pageantry better,” he said.

Reporting by Michael Wang and Justina Wheale.

Shen Yun’s New York Company will perform one more show in Vancouver before leaving Canada. The production will return in April to perform in Calgary, Edmonton, and Regina.

For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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