“I loved the beauty of the dance, the beauty of the costumes, the colors, the music, the storyline behind all of it, and the technology that they’ve added in … it’s just fabulous,” Mr. Doyle said.

Mrs. Doyle was enamored by the gentility of the female dancers, saying that their “gracefulness is spectacular!”

“Each [vignette] … gave us a different outlook, a different viewpoint, a different insight into the Chinese culture over the millennia,” Mr. Doyle said.

China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party launched a persecution against the practice in 1999, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.

“It makes us think about the history of the Chinese … that it has moved [away] from a very traditional, richly traditional, faith-filled culture,” Mr. Doyle said. “And I see parallels with American culture doing the same thing.”

Juan Roman, III, Selectman (Mayor) of Chaplin, Connecticut; and Linda Roman, horse trainer and behaviorist, also attended Shen Yun for the first time at the Boch Center on Dec. 31.

Traveling from Connecticut to see the performance, Mr. Roman said that Shen Yun was “above and beyond what we were expecting … the overall production is great!”

Not knowing what to expect when attending the performance, the Romans said they were pleasantly surprised by the company’s mission to revive China’s 5,000-year-old traditional culture.

Despite all of the countries and cities where Shen Yun has performed, they are still not allowed in China. It is only outside of China, through dance, music, and legends, that Shen Yun has sparked a cultural renaissance.

“It brings to light things that people don’t realize in their everyday life—they don’t realize what it’s like in other countries [or] what it’s like with other people in our country,” Mrs. Roman said.

“I think shows like this are a very important reminder,” she added. “We need to be kind, we need to be aware, we need to do what we can to help.”