ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Tage Woehl, who works in corporate accounting for the aerospace industry, had never been to a show like Shen Yun before Saturday afternoon at the Escondido Center for the Arts. He enjoyed it more than he anticipated, calling it an impressive performance.

“Just the power of their movements was really really good,” he said. “It was remarkable. I was really impressed by everything that I saw.”

Mr. Woehl’s wife, Imelda, works as a math teacher. She loved the performance, as well. “It was very emotional,” she said. “From the very beginning, I just wanted to cry. I want to cry right now.”

She was brought to the verge of tears because of the beauty of Chinese culture.

“It’s sad that they’ve had to wait this long to bring the culture out to the rest of us to enjoy it. And I just think that it’s so wrong to suppress people that way,” she said, referring to the iron grip the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has over China.

“But there were parts of it that, at the end, it all just felt so hopeful. It is very emotional,” she said.

She also enjoyed the imagery of the performance.

“The visuals, they just pull your heartstrings,” she said. “They evoke these otherworldly scenes.”

Mrs. Woehl specifically referred to the colors, the dances, and the backdrop, as well as the way in which Falun Dafa was incorporated into the performance.

“To not have that freedom to express yourself spiritually, that would be so painful for me to live in a society like that, where I cannot express myself spiritually and follow their religious teachings or whatever it is they want to follow,” Mrs. Woehl said.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline that teaches the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance, according to its website. The practice has been banned, and its practitioners persecuted by the CCP since 1999.

The performance helped her to realize how deeply spiritual the Chinese people are.

“You can see it in their stories, their folklore, and their costumes,” she said.