NEW YORK CITY—Chris Cimino and Edna De Jesus were thrilled with their first time attending Shen Yun Performing Arts, describing the experience as pure entertainment.

“I think it’s fabulous—it’s beautiful, the music is beautiful, the choreography, the costuming. And I like the interaction with that screen in the back and how well that’s choreographed. It’s really been purely entertainment,” said Mr. Cimino, a meteorologist.

“It’s a combination of beautiful artistry, beautiful storytelling, beautiful music, costuming design. You will be having your senses totally fulfilled and entertained,” he said during intermission. “And this is just the first hour of the show so far. So I’m looking forward to the second.”

Ms. De Jesus, a makeup artist, agreed, praising the beauty and quality of the performance.

Before communism, China for thousands of years was a spiritual civilization, and the Chinese believed their culture was a gift from the divine. But when the Chinese communist regime took power in 1949, it set out to destroy the traditional culture, and this is but one reason Shen Yun is banned from performing in China.

“It’s sort of ‘good conquerors over evil,’ it’s kind of the message I’m getting. And it’s interesting to understand the suppression that’s going on, obviously, in China, and seeing these performances and the history prior to that, and how important it is,” he said.

“And it’s important to express this way. And I feel we’re privileged to see something like this today.”

“It’s gorgeous, it’s really beautiful and really impressive, and sad at the same time that you’re not able to appreciate this [in China],” Ms. De Jesus said.

“I think it just shows us a part of the culture that we never knew. And that we will never get to know unless we see the show,” she said.