MONTREAL, Canada—Isabel Igreja, a psychologist, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts on April 20 and brought her 86-year-old mother, who had seen the performance before.
“The show is lovely,” said Ms. Igreja, who was seeing it for the first time. “It’s lovely to see the acrobatics. The costumes are very pretty. ... It really makes one feel good watching it.”
Ms. Igreja said that while the persecution was something very sad, there was beauty to be found in that sadness, and there was hope, also. As a psychologist, she saw great importance in the values and emotions being conveyed through the stories told on stage, she added.
Ms. Igreja said she believes the arts are a fantastic way to “learn about a culture that, as Montrealers, we may not know about.”
“We can tell that it’s the music that goes with that culture and that dance, and it has history. So it’s nice to hear some of the sounds that we don’t always hear from musical instruments that we don’t always hear in different cultures.”
“I see children here today that have come with their parents. I think it’s a lovely family gathering when you bring children here because it opens their mind to different cultures and different people. ... Montreal is a multicultural city, and so is our country, and so I think that’s also very positive.”
