LONDON—International criminal lawyer Eleanor Jane Stephenson is also a legal consultant for the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC). On April 14, she attended Shen Yun Performing Arts’ first of ten shows at Eventim Apollo.

“It was incredible. All the dancers were beautiful. They were—so athletic—really impressive and just really nice to watch—I could have sat there for hours!”

Though Shen Yun has suffered continual harassment at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the New York-based performing arts company is welcomed and beloved worldwide.

“The artists are brave. I did ask a colleague of mine who knows a lot about the issue. The CCP is doing what I expected—they’re intimidating the dancers and the families of the dancers in China,” Ms. Stephenson said.

Since its inception, Shen Yun has grown to include eight equally-large companies that perform simultaneously around the world. This year, the company is expected to visit over 180 cities across five continents.

“Really impressed in particular to the forced organ harvesting [story-dance]—that was done really, really well. It will raise huge awareness and it’s obviously reaching huge amounts of people. That is just excellent,” she expressed.

“[Organ harvesting is] absolutely shocking and people don’t really know about it. I spend all day, every day trying to reach people. To see this number of people being reached every year is brilliant.”

Ms. Stephenson’s biggest takeaway from the evening was that “[Chinese] people feel suppressed by the communist party.”