“I can’t believe we’ve never seen it before,” said Mr. Duke, a tech executive, at Atlanta Symphony Hall. “We'll just have to return.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s leading classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Since its inception in 2006, it has grown from one to eight touring groups that bring the divinely inspired “China before communism” to around 1 million audience members each season.

The Dukes said they enjoyed every element of the innovative performance.

“Oh, it was fantastic,” Mr. Duke said. “The orchestra was amazing. The performers were just outstanding. The choreography was just spot on.”

They had great seats, he added, and a surprise that occurred during the first performance after intermission “added just an extra element and it was just incredible.”

“The performance was wonderful,” added Mrs. Duke, a real estate appraiser. “It was amazing.”

The couple said they enjoyed the different stories, told through classical Chinese dance and spanning five millennia, and found something that resonated in each one.

“It all ... provided such a history of the Chinese culture going back thousands of years that it was very enlightening,” Mr. Duke said.

“It transcended,” he said.

To sum the performance up in a word, it was “brilliant,” Mr. Duke said. “The brilliance of the colors and the brilliance of the performers and the brilliance of the storyline.”