WATERBURY, Conn.—Brian O’Connor, a former firefighter captain from the Hudson Valley in New York, said he thought Shen Yun Performing Arts, which was performing at the Palace Theater, was “enlightening.”

“From the history of what’s happened in the past, what’s happening now, the culture of the music, the culture of the dress; I find it really interesting, very neat,” Mr. O’Connor said. “I think it’s enlightening.”

The mission of Shen Yun, which is based in New York, is to promote the culture of “China before communism.”

Mr. O’Connor was especially impressed with the Shen Yun piece “The Steadfast Heart,” which dramatizes the reality faced by people in China today. He said it was important to spotlight the bad things that are happening to people in China today, “like the story about how the people are getting kidnapped and their body parts are being harvested.”

Mr. O’Connor liked how Shen Yun’s emcees introduced each piece in the performance in both English and Chinese, “and how they describe each scene, and give you a little prelude to what’s to come.”

Shen Yun’s performing artists go through intense training to perform. “The dancing’s incredible,” he said. “I did not know that the dancers are from New York. I had no idea that they were trained there. I thought that they were coming from China. But it makes sense they’re being trained in New York because they’re speaking out against the Chinese government.”

Mr. O’Connor added, “I think that people should have freedom of speech. Obviously, that’s not entirely possible in China, so I like to see that it’s being spread throughout the world.

“I think everybody in the world wants the same thing—everybody wants peace and people to be able to express their own religion and faith in their own way without being persecuted.”