(Clearwisdom.net) On Easter Sunday afternoon, the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Alberta held its first Shen Yun Performing Arts show this year. Among the audience members of the full house show was Mr. Green, co-founder and co-artistic director, and actor, for one of Calgary's most successful theater companies.

"It's marvelous. I really enjoy this tradition," he said during the show's intermission. "I'm very moved. I feel lucky that we're able to see the traditional Chinese and it pains me to think that such a beautiful show would be considered subversive in contemporary China."

Mr. Green, his daughter Maya (C) and her friend Alia (R)

"It's sort of sad to get to understand that," he said. "I can tell you that I'm very engaged with notions of censorship and oppression. Those things engage me. Those issues engage me profoundly because I am a creative artist and I'm used to expressing myself, and watching this reminds me of the story of the Ukrainians that came here to help found this part of the country."

Those Ukrainians, he said, kept their own dance and music alive in Canada after it was suppressed almost to extinction in the former Soviet Union. When the Iron Curtain fell, those forms could begin their revival.

When asked about the music, and how it worked with the dance, Mr. Green said, "I'm enjoying it all. It's a very holistic approach to. For me its theater, because it has story-telling, dance and music together with visual arts, and to me, it's a high form of theater."

His daughter, Maya, and her friend, Alia, said they also enjoyed the show. "I think it is a really good show. I really liked it," said Maya. "I think it has lots of different dances, interesting dancers, and ideas from the dancers," added Alia.

In the audience was Shannon Smadella, Miss Canada 2009. "I love it. It's beautiful. The music, the choreography, and the dance, ... just seem to come together to make the show so beautiful to watch," she said during the intermission. "The singer [Min Jiang] was amazing. ... It's nice to feel the passion in her voice. It's nice to be able to hear that aspect as well," said Ms. Smadella, who is also a dancer, a yoga instructor and an experienced pianist.

Shannon Smadella, Miss Canada 2009

"Everything seems to come together and work out very well, with the singing and the last instrument [the erhu] ... is very beautiful as well. I can't wait to see the rest of the show. The dancing and the stories that you see in the dancing--it just is really wonderful, it kind of brings everything together, and it's nice to have a little bit of story behind it."

Source: http://theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/15223/
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