PHOENIX, Ariz.—A performance that can move one to tears is a powerful experience.

“It was just absolutely beautiful and moving, it really was,” Ms. Segall said. “The music was outstanding; the dancing was amazing. It just gave you such a deep feeling—it was magnificent.”

David Segall, a campaign manager who came to see Shen Yun with his wife, added, “It shows there is hope. The CCP is oppressing everybody. Their goal is world domination. And seeing something as beautiful as this put into an art form was hopeful.”

“This year, I read [the advertisement] a little closer, and it talked about ‘China before communism,’ and that interested me when it said that,” Mr. Hacking said.

“I really like the spiritual aspect, talking about supreme being, and I appreciate that part. Especially because nowadays, it seems like in many places of entertainment or education, everybody’s afraid to talk about that today. So I love that.”

Shen Yun’s dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance. One aspect of this dance form is the use of flips and tumbles that many people associate with gymnastics or acrobatics. However, these techniques actually originate from classical Chinese dance.

“It’s beautiful. It just made me think a lot about how rich [Chinese culture is] .... especially, some of the things I learned today about the moves that look like gymnastics, but they existed many centuries before gymnastics,” Mr. Hacking said. “That was cool.”