NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.—Gary Droppa, a builder, and his wife, Lucene, a retired mental health counselor, came to Shen Yun Performing Arts on the evening of March 23 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“I just love it. It’s just so much fun. There’s so much vitality and just power in everything they do,” Mr. Droppa said.

Mr. Droppa said he was impressed with “the beauty and the grace of the whole thing; everything is so fluid.”

Aside from classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun’s dances also consist of ethnic and folk dances and dance stories.

“The storytelling in the dance, I think very effective,” Mrs. Droppa said, noticing that Mr. Droppa was emotional during one of the dances.

One of Shen Yun’s dances was a turbulent love story and it made Mr. Droppa think of his own life.

“The political persecution. We enjoy our freedom here, so it’s hard to really grasp,” he said.

Mrs. Droppa found parallels between the dance and Christianity.

“The persecution one was pretty effective. It reminded me of Christianity. If you express your faith, you can be persecuted in some ways. I didn’t realize the severity in China of what would be going on. So, it’s very eye-opening,” she said.

“I think the way it’s put together, the costumes, how they use the sleeves, can turn into flags, can turn into ... part of the story, but they don’t need props because the costumes become the props. And the colors, the way they outline, it’s just ... magical,” Mrs. Droppa said.

Although Shen Yun is sharing the beauty of Chinese culture with the world, Shen Yun is unable to perform in China.

“I think that there are more dimensions than what we see. And that in some countries, it can be forbidden to include the dimension that we don’t see, that heavenly dimension,” Mrs. Droppa said.

“I think that history shouldn’t be lost. And if I understand it correctly, a lot of this would be forbidden. And I think it’s eye-opening to learn that,” Mrs. Droppa said.