“Every dance had a message behind it … values that are sometimes lost and forgotten,” he said.

Mr. Litchford attended the matinee performance with his wife Kenna Litchford, retired elementary school teacher, at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater on Feb. 25.

“I had been wanting to see this for years—he finally took me—and it gave me all the inspiration and wow factor that I thought I was going to get,” said Mrs. Litchford. “It was wonderful … I was really impressed.”

Mr. Litchford admitted that he was originally very reluctant to see the performance but he left feeling uplifted and impressed.

“It’s a peaceful opportunity to escape the whole world of craziness and see a performance of people who love what they do, so we enjoyed it,” he said.

Mr. Litchford was impressed by the similarities between ancient Chinese spirituality and traditional culture to his own faith, saying Shen Yun “tells you there’s a universal bond.”

“I know that they give great hope for this world,” he said.

“What I love about [Shen Yun] is it talks so much not about how we’re different, but how we are the same … what we have in common,” he added, “so I think it’s a good net that ties us all together.”

Because of the “peace and calm of the program,” Mr. Litchfield also admitted that the benevolent expression from the performers helped him to not get upset about the disruptions of cell phone texting from an audience member that was seated beside him.

“The thing is to take the message and immediately be able to apply it in a situation I had here,” he said.

“In a typical event, I would have probably politely got into her face,” he said, “But this situation … the message was so peaceful and calm, I said, ‘okay, I'll just take the high road’.”

“It gives us hope … also, there’s a calmness about the message,” he said. “We'll go home relaxed.”