SALT LAKE CITY—“We’ve waited several years to come and we wish we wouldn’t have waited now … it’s amazing,” said Heidi Franco, Mayor of Heber City in Wasatch County and a political science professor at the University of Utah.

“The colors, the stories are amazing … you really feel them in your heart,” said Mrs. Franco. “You feel the excitement … and the majesty of the different dances and places and times.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts aims to revive China’s 5,000-year-old traditional culture. The company’s website says its performance this year demonstrates “China before communism.”

“I just love the [traditional] culture—love it—and you can see the dancers love it too,” she said. “And that’s what makes it so special.”

“I have felt that,” Mrs. Franco said.” I certainly have felt that here, and it’s a wonderful thing … it’s a very beautiful, peaceful, and happy thing!”

“I love their expressions and their faces, it’s just lovely,” she added. “The effects are just so much fun … It’s just a joy to watch.”

“I think that all of us need to learn the truth and the forbearance and the benevolence and kindness to others,” she added.

Mr. Franco, whose distant ancestors came from China, said the performance touched his heart.

Thanking the artistic director and the performers of Shen Yun, Mrs. Franco said, “thank you for all your hard work … and again, bringing us so much beauty and culture and just magnificence!”