“Breathtaking! Absolutely fantastic showcase of styles, and the costumes were just breathtaking,” Ms. Tomalin said.

“It’s just a whole package of fantasticness,” she said. “There wasn’t a moment where we weren’t just in awe of what was taking place on stage and the dedication of all the performers.”

Regarding the Shen Yun dancers, Ms. Tomalin was amazed by their grace and strength.

With its flips and gentle elegance, Chinese classical dance is one of the most athletic and expressive art forms in the world. According to the company’s website, Shen Yun has preserved the true aesthetics of this classical dance system—the way it has been passed down from antiquity—and presents this authentic culture in its purest form.

“I was obviously very, very interested in the brass section, and I have to congratulate them,” she said. “There [were] some unbelievably hard parts in the performances, which they completely smashed out of the park. Wonderful, wonderful brass section.”

Ms. Tomalin said she was fascinated by the erhu. “It was a haunting sound, absolutely beautiful sound.”

“It was basically bringing something new into my life—everybody’s life, because it’s an ancient instrument and not the norm in a pit orchestra,” she said.

On the educational side, Ms. Tomalin commented that she also gained insight into the current situation in China.

In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a persecution campaign against the spiritual practice, which is also called Falun Gong, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.

Ms. Tomalin said elements like “being kind” and “reap what you sow” are missing in the world.

The world needs more kindness, she said. “It needs more understanding and humanity.”

“I‘ll obviously be talking about the whole show to everybody,” Ms. Tomalin said. “I will be sharing the fact that it made you sit there and think, ’Crickey, there’s ... so many cultures and traditions that are being lost.’

“Even the situation where the dances that have been performed for our benefit are not allowed to be performed in their original country,” she added. “It just seems insane to me.”

“The fact [Shen Yun] started as one, and now it’s eight companies … that’s very significant and very promising,” Ms. Tomalin said, that there is a demand and an interest in the “preservation of the traditional and cultural elements.”

“It was a great, great evening out, but with so much more than we actually expected,” she said. “Absolutely breathtaking, very thought-provoking as well.”