(Clearwisdom.net) As Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World opened to Edmonton's Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, Beaumount's Mayor Camille Berube, couldn't find enough words to praise it. "This is a wonderful, wonderful performance, colorful, and excellent talent, so very well-done. All the movement, the music, all the arrangements--it's an incredible performance, great, very, very well done," he beamed.

The mayor said, "You see a whole variety of different songs from different parts of the country and then the color of the all the costumes. It's incredible, the music, the sound, it's wonderful."

Mayor Berube specifically mentioned the piece, "Drummers of the Tang Court," "The sound was incredible. They're not just standing there, it's all the movement and the interaction that they have amongst each other." He said he also liked the opening dance, "The Five Millenia Begin," "That was really quite impressive!"

The mayor praised a musical arrangement performed by erhu virtuoso Mei Xuan, "That was fantastic. My young daughter plays violin, so I know how much work it involves, and so the sound is just, I've never seen an instrument like it, but the sound is just perfect, it was wonderful."

Mr. Berube said the sound of the erhu was "very refreshing." He added, "The combination of the piano and the violin-type of instrument is extremely rich in the combination of sounds, so it's very warm for the heart."

Ms. Szymanski, executive director for a University of Alberta-connected foundation, was "very impressed. The synchronization, the colors, the dancing. It's all wonderful. I'm really enjoying it," she said.

Ms. Szymanski (L), executive director for a University of Alberta-connected foundation

When asked what stood out most for her, she said, "I think the synchronization. They are perfect. Every move they make, every step they take, every jump--they are all perfect! Nothing is out of line at all. It's wonderful!"

Ms. Szymanski said, "It's totally different. It's very impressive. We're learning a lot. A lot of history. We're just learning a lot about them."

"It's really marvelous. I'm so impressed. I've never seen anything of this scale before, and the skill--wonderfully talented people. And of course the music, I love!" exclaimed MLA David Swann.

He said Shen Yun, with its portrayal of traditional Chinese culture from ancient times to the present, held "new information for me--the cultural history of China--all of it is new for me."

Mr. Swann was especially taken with the erhu performance, "Hope" by Mei Xuan. "So haunting and sweet and clear, and she's so talented," he said, unlike "A lot of the sounds of this instrument which are mournful and sad."

He was also impressed by, "the skills of the dancers--wonderfully skilled, wonderfully practiced and together on everything. Just wonderful!"

Mr. Swann added he was impressed by seeing a program which had "well-defined stories and history included in it. That was particularly meaningful for me, to see some of the history of Chinese culture portrayed over centuries."

"I understand a little of the Buddhist tradition, the Buddhist values. I've read some of those values of Buddhism, and I like them, I appreciate them, I think they have a lot to teach Western culture," he said.

Mr. Swann concluded by saying that Shen Yun makes a "very rich, very big contribution to our culture in trying to understand the rest of the world, trying to understand people among us who are of Chinese descent, and trying to work together to build healthy communities. All of this takes listening, learning, and appreciating. There's lots included here, and lots to learn from, from the Chinese culture, for me."

The Base Commander of CFB Edmonton, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Blenkinsop also attended the performance.

Lieutenant Colonel Gary Blenkinsop

The commander said he was particularly taken by China's ancient artistic traditions, "If it looks like ballet, if it looks like gymnastics, that's probably because they invented it five thousand years ago."

"There's a wide range of different talents there," he said, noting Shen Yun's singers as a case in point. He felt that this art form had evolved over China's long history saying, "They've been singing a long time. As they say, it's a five thousand year-old tradition, singing, dancing and all the rest of it."

Referring to the performances that touch upon present day issues concerning the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Commander Blenkinsop said, "And then they have the contemporary side in there too, with the modern dress. I thought [those dances] were great. It kind of brought [present day] China back. It is modernly relevant."

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/15417/
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