TORONTO—Nadia Maharaj, a jewellery designer living in Toronto originally from Trinidad, brought seven family members to see Shen Yun Performing Arts at Sony Centre on Friday night.
“We just came down with the family and just loved it. It was amazing, really choreographed extremely well, everyone was so in time—amazing, absolutely amazing. We loved it,” she said.
“I’m very impressed, exceeded my expectation.”
The jewellery worn in some of the pieces gave her some design ideas, she said.
“Beautiful, beautiful. Of course, a different culture altogether but very eye-catching, and they did a really, really good job. … Gives me some ideas for my own—very inspiring for sure.”
The costumes in Shen Yun display a range of colours and styles, including imperial dragon robes and cloud capes from the Tang Dynasty, traditional Han clothing, and the ethnic attire of the Manchurian, Tibetan, and Uyghur ethnic groups.
Ms. Maharaj was impressed.
“I loved the fabric, I think the fabric was just beautiful, just the flow of it. Really I think that sort of had so much to do with the dance itself, just the way they move with the fabrics,” she said.
“Extremely well-done, the designers were very, very talented.”
New York-based Shen Yun aims to revive 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture through mainly classical Chinese dance presentations that include pieces depicting legendary Chinese historic figures and beloved characters from famed Chinese novels.
The ancient art form of classical Chinese dance includes combinations of leaps, spins, tumbles, flips, and turns that are mastered by the performers through rigorous training.
The dancers also take very small, toe-heel steps that make them seem like they’re floating.
“They sort of float right on stage,” said Ms. Maharaj. “Very very impressive.”
She also took note of the colours.
“I loved the colour combinations, the bright greens and the pinks, and they have the one with the browns with the blue and the orange. I love it. I was looking at it for colours. We just bought a house and I was looking at colour combinations actually for one of the kid’s rooms,” she said.
“It’s very inspiring, you get so many ideas. It gives you an insight into a different culture, and what works together that you wouldn’t normally put together in North American culture, so very inspiring.”
Reporting by Becky Zhou and Joan Delaney.
Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is in Toronto for five performances at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
