SAN FRANCISCO—Anna Gemma, a ballet teacher and former professional ballerina, had high praise for Shen Yun Performing Arts’ classical Chinese dance presentation.

“[Shen Yun is] excellent. Great training, you can tell.  Great flexibility. Very strong acrobatic skills. Choreography—very engaging, you never get tired. Beautiful costumes. Very well thought out,” Ms. Gemma, who started her career in Russia, said after watching the performance at the War Memorial Opera House on Jan. 7.

“For me as a teacher, I'll take away this from my career: That I have to teach my students to be consistent with training to succeed and look beautiful and very effortless on the stage.”

“I’m a very spiritual person myself, so that is important to me. And I definitely appreciate that as well through the body art,” she said.

“I think the world probably only knows China right now as a communist state that is very opposed to Western values. And what [Shen Yun] sheds a light on is China’s deep history, which goes way before communism,” said Mr. Tsao, who works in finance and investment.

“I don’t know of any show that actually shines a bright light on this part of China’s history, which is very important. They were, I think, quite advanced in the world at that time. And then, we see the communist effect changed the whole country.”

“It takes a lot of dedication and practice to be able to do what they do. And, like Anna said, they’re effortless,” he said.

“I applaud them, and say ‘keep going and keep doing this because it’s very important for the world to see this.’”