HIGH WYCOMBE, UK—Rayner Wilding, an osteopath, was dazzled by Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Wycombe Swan Theatre on March 1.

Her first time seeing Shen Yun, Ms. Wilding thought the performance was “absolutely stunning.”

“We’ve wanted to see it for years and … it lived up to every expectation,” she said.

She thought the cadence of the show really “brought everything to life.”

“It was really well-paced … everything was really energized,” she said. “There [were] really lovely, poignant points of gentleness … with some really good humor.”

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. With its flips and gentle elegance, the dance system 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 Chinese classical dance—the way it has been passed down from antiquity.

“It’s a masterpiece,” she added. “They don’t put a foot out of place, and everything is completely in time … it’s immaculate.”

“I thought it was an absolute history lesson,” Ms. Wilding said. “I learnt loads today.

“The Masters of Ceremony did a fantastic job explaining everything … so we could follow along,” she added.

Ms. Wilding really appreciated Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which blends traditional Chinese instruments with a classical Western orchestra.

“It was really emotive,” she said. “Some of the instruments, you can really tell what they’re trying to portray through every note … fantastic.”

Ancient Chinese instruments, such as the two-string erhu and the pipa, lead the melody, supported by the traditional instruments found in a Western orchestra.

The erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed instrument, is an incredibly expressive instrument capable of conveying a broad range of emotions, even imitating sounds from chirping birds to neighing horses, Shen Yun’s website explains.

Robert Bell, retired purchasing manager, and his wife Irene, a retired technical writer, also saw Shen Yun for the first time at the Wycombe Swan Theatre on March 1.

“I loved the beauty of it,” Mrs. Bell said. “It doesn’t need a culture or a language, it’s universal.”

“The history of ‘China before communism,’ that was something I didn’t know anything about,” she added. “So that affected me very deeply.”

Since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006, its mission has been to revive China’s traditional culture and share it on the world’s stage. The age-old culture has been on the brink of extinction since the Chinese communist regime seized power in 1949 and began its attack on “old” tradition. The company says its performances thus demonstrate “China before communism.”

“The staging was very good … we were enjoying the interplay between the screen at the back,” Mrs. Bell said.

“So clever, I’ve never seen that,” Mr. Bell added.

The spiritual themes of the dance stories are what impressed the Bells most about Shen Yun.

“The spiritual meaning came through to me very strongly … I enjoyed the spirituality behind … the dancing,” Mr. Bell said. “The fact that it was so clearly explained … brought a lot more meaning.”

“The philosophy behind what they believed, I thought, was just beautiful in its simplicity,” Mrs. Bell said.

“There is a reward for doing good,” Mr. Bell said. “So messages like that came through to me … forbearance and suffering and how there is reward for doing good.” The Bells plan to take their entire family to see Shen Yun next year.

“It was a very enjoyable afternoon, and we'd recommend it to the rest of our family and anyone else,” Mrs. Bell said.