SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Financial advisor Simone Parks saw Shen Yun for the first time at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center on Feb. 3. Exiting the theater, Ms. Parks couldn’t be more satisfied with her experience.

“I loved it. It was magnificent. I loved the costumes, the lighting, the choreography was beautiful. It was very inspirational—a lot of good messages,” she said.

“We know in China there’s no freedom, so a show like this would be banned. In America we have the freedom to express our opinion—whatever it is,” she said. “This was a good message for our time. A beautiful message.”

“I heard that [followers of] certain religions in China are being arrested and used for organ donation. I’m familiar with those studies and reports. It’s very secret,” Ms. Parks said. “People don’t talk about it but it is very horrific and very devastating to see. It is unfortunately true.”

For Ms. Parks, her greatest takeaway from the performance was the idea of “looking inwards.” She loved this spiritual aspect of Shen Yun.

“It’s very necessary to tune within and not just be focused on the external and all the narcissism that exists in society. The way to elevate is to go within. I love that message. It spoke to my heart,” she said.

“The only way to really save the world is if we come up higher and tune into ourselves more. That’s the shield against calamity and the disasters of the world. That’s what I saw in the [performance]—the divine.”

“[We need Shen Yun] to bring people out of their mundane lives and to bring them into the majesty of grace,” she said. “This is something that computer technology cannot give us—the expression of human emotions and the discipline of physical dexterity. The AI cannot recreate such beauty, this is real human emotions.”