LONDON, UK—Joanna Kafouris attended Shen Yun Performing Arts with her mother and godmother to enjoy the performance at the Eventim Apollo on Jan. 18.

Based in New York, Shen Yun’s mission is to share with the world 5,000 years of traditional culture from “China before communism.” This was new to many audience members, including Ms. Kafouris.

“When you think of China, and you think about Communist China, you don’t realize how much beauty there was actually prior to that,” she said.

“It’s lovely to understand the spiritual beliefs, as well, of the country—the way that dance has been such an important factor within the country, as has martial arts.”

Ms. Kafouris said that many people in the West are just becoming aware of China’s traditional culture’s contribution to world cultures.

“What the Western world is really coming to date with in today’s world, China was exposed to many thousands of years ago,” she said.

“I think it’s important because many people express themselves through different mediums—to be able to express yourself, whether it be through your religion, through your belief, through your dance, or through music.”

Ms. Kafouris said she practices tai chi, a type of qigong that originated in China. “For me, that’s extremely, extremely important in my daily life and practice. If I don’t feel right, balanced energy-wise, I know that my qigong is lacking,” she said.

“To put that back into a culture, I think, is extremely important because they are ways of expressing yourself, ways of being able to deal with your [life] everyday. I had an illness with my nose. I had an operation and it [was] unsuccessful. Through qigong practice, I can now breathe through my nose, which I was never able to do before.”

“So it goes a lot deeper than just something nice to have,” Ms. Kafouris said.

Ms. Kafouris has Greek ancestry and was impressed with the spiritual message in the story “The Steadfast Heart.”

“You can be in the most devastating element of your life, but just by having that belief things can get better—I’m from a Greek culture, so we have our own spiritual beliefs as well—sometimes when I’m in a dark place, I definitely turn to my Creator, and it always uplifts me. So it’s nice to see that here as well,” she said.

She liked Shen Yun’s presenters who speak in English and Chinese to introduce each dance piece.

“This is where East meets West. It’s great that we can appreciate each other’s cultures, and we can learn from each other’s cultures. Having two commentators, showing how uniform they are together and how well they work together; it’s a reflection of our societies, of how we fuse together.”

Ms. Kafouris was impressed with the classical Chinese dance. “I love it,” she said. “I love the discipline of it. I think it’s beautiful.”

“The costumes are stunning, absolutely stunning. I was saying to my mother at the beginning of the break how stunning those costumes really are.”