MINNEAPOLIS—Daniel Elliott found himself moved by the layers of meaning behind each movement on stage at the Orpheum Theatre, watching Shen Yun Performing Arts.

“It’s not just a dance,” he said. “It’s the meaning behind it, the history behind it.”

“It’s incredible. I’ve never seen something like this before,” said Mr. Elliott, a doctor, who saw the performance with his wife, Adeline, on May 4.

“To see the interpretations of [this] dance and the cultures shown, and the history behind it is very fascinating,” Mr. Elliott said. “ It’s an eye-opening experience.”

“[You] feel moved ... you can see it, you can feel it. The motion, and the beauty, and the faces of the dancers, and the skill of the dancers, which I appreciate, all the hard work that went into that,” he said.

“The work that went in by the creators of this to figure out the movement and how it inspires the movement. It’s deep—I don’t know how to put it into words,” he said.

“We in the United States are oblivious to a lot of the things going on,” Mr. Elliott said.

“That is going on now,” Mr. Elliott said. “Eye-opening.”

Mr. Elliott said that looking at China and the former Soviet Union,  spirituality was “suppressed aggressively, but it is still there.”

“The spirit of the people and their desire for spirituality and the pursuit of ... of a higher being is still there,” he said. “They can’t crush it. They can try to crush it, but they can’t completely crush it.”

“They cannot kill it. It’s been tried in multiple different cultures,” he said. “It’s been tried and has not been done. And it never will be completely done.”

Mrs. Elliott agreed and said the portrayal of what is happening in China is important to share.

“For me, I think that’s the most important thing,” she said.