He said the classical Chinese dance and music performance left him with positive feelings and a hopeful message.

“Tradition ... tranquility, calmness, faith,” Mr. Wise said. “We need that more in our society anyway, so happy to see it.”

Each performance includes individual dance vignettes that provide stunning visuals, tell a story, or feature an ethnic or folk dance. Vocal and instrumental soloists are also interspersed throughout, and two bilingual emcees set the scene for each part of the performance.

“I like it very much,” Mr. Wise said. “They did a very good job. I like the colors. There’s a lot of movement. Its dancers are really good.”

He said he appreciated Shen Yun’s efforts to bring back traditional cultural ideas from the historic dynasties of China, which was once known as “The Land of the Divine.”

Mr. Wise said he was sitting close enough to see the faces of the dancers and could tell they believed in what they were doing and had a lot of passion for performing for the audience.

“You can tell it’s coming through with their dance,” he said. “They’re doing a very good job of showing us what that really is like, the culture part of it from ancient history to even some of the modern dance.”

Overall, he hoped to recommend Shen Yun to others in the future.

“I’m glad I showed up to come to this. ... I think a lot of people should see this sort of thing so we can kind of understand each other’s cultures and see how we grow together,” he said.

“I have good feelings about the Chinese culture to begin with, but this is better.”