RICHMOND, Ky.—Brittany Wardford, a business owner, and Michelle Laslie, a pharmacy operations supervisor, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the EKU Center for the Arts on Feb. 11.

“It was amazing, it was phenomenal,” Ms. Wardford said. “I feel like everybody was in sync. It was flawless. I felt like everybody was walking on clouds whenever they were dancing.”

“I love that each time I come, it’s not the same performance,” Ms. Laslie said. “It’s very different every time, so I don’t feel like I’m ever bored watching it again.”

“I think it’s really brave for people to break out of that cycle and be able to have their freedom, to be able to dance and show us these types of things,” Ms. Wardford said of Shen Yun’s efforts.

Ms. Laslie shared that she had minored in Asian studies and was thus familiar with traditional Chinese culture.

“I really think that China before communism had a lot more freedom, a lot more individuality,” she said. “They still were very collective, but it wasn’t to the extent that people couldn’t express themselves or express negative views like they [can’t] now. So I really liked the message of being able to go back to that instead of today’s China.”

Ms. Laslie also shared the messages she saw in Shen Yun’s performance.

“I think the message is to be a good person,” she said. “It … teaches you to be a good person, to be kind to others, to be accepting of others.”