WASHINGTON, D.C.—When John Gersbach learned about what Shen Yun Performing Arts was trying to accomplish, he turned to his wife Brenda, who speaks Mandarin and taught at a university in Taiwan, and said to her, “We have to go.”

“It’s quite unique and beautifully expressed in music and the dance,” Mr. Gershbach said. “And then on the technical side, the interplay between stage and film and back and forth and back and forth is incredible.”

Mr. Gershbach commended the artists for bringing the ancient culture to life, and sharing much-needed values around the world, such as “the importance of love and the importance of relationships and having a good community where people look after each other.”

“It is absolutely beautiful,” he said. “I think that’s the China that people need to know. And I think it’s the China, what China needs to be, in my personal opinion, what it needs to become.”

“I enjoyed the spiritual aspect of it,” said Ms. Samuel. Just going back to the Creator and going back to spirituality, just speaking on that, that really touched me. It tells me that although there’s so many different religions out there, it all goes back to the divine and bringing it back to source.”

“It touches your soul,” she said. Ms. Samuel felt Shen Yun expressed universal themes and values, showing the similarities among humanity.

“That we’re all the same, really ... all the same on the inside,” she said. “Taking away anything physical, we all have a soul. No matter what you look like, no matter what your religion is, we all have a soul in which this performance speaks to. Which makes this performance relatable to everyone. It goes beyond color, it goes beyond religion, it goes beyond physical characteristics.”

Mr. Higgins added, “So we all share the divine beauty within, which is Shen Yun.”

Mr. Higgins said the experience had been very emotional, and he felt the music and the dance and the art “in my whole body,” and it had brought him “a sense of, you know, wonder.”

He said he knew dancers, and how physically demanding their craft was, and to see Shen Yun dancers pull off their flips and agile feats while adorned in brilliant costumes and telling a story amazed him.

“Just amazing,” he said. “I think that’s just what made it wonderful.”