HONOLULU—Medical group CEO and retired Janet Wakefield-Darvas and her husband, Peter Darvas, owner of a chiropractic clinic, have always enjoyed cultural events—making them especially excited to attend Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening show at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on May 10.

“The different music, the costume, the color, the pageantry, the tradition, the beliefs—it’s so important to have the diversity so we can have more understanding in the world and more love and more kindness and more peace,” Mr. Darvas shared.

“Every city we’ve ever lived in in the United States and Canada [Shen Yun’s] performed, but we never went before. … Finally, I said, ‘Why have I not gone before? So, let’s go.’ We got fantastic seats and wonderful music.”

Mr. Darvas has a high respect for the artists. The performers put in “unbelievable hard work,” he expressed. “They travel all over the world, they perform several times a day. They’re tremendous athletes.”

“That was very painful to watch,” he said. Through the program, Mr. Darvas understood that, “there’s a higher power that we need to respect. Man is not power; it comes from God.”

Though Shen Yun is well-beloved by audiences around the world, it is currently forbidden by the ruling Chinese regime from performing in China. In fact, many of the company’s founding members had fled to America to escape persecution by the communist party.

Mrs. Wakefield-Darvas, too, loved Shen Yun’s “connection to the deep cultural heritage and keeping that alive.”

“I didn’t know in China that this type of show wouldn’t be permitted. So, I think it’s wonderful that it is being shown here so that other people can see the visual representation of the stories.

“I love that there’s the balance of the men and the women in the dance performances. There’s whimsy and there’s love and there’s sadness and there’s all this joy, and it all ties back together in the end. It comes through in their performance. So, I just want to say how wonderful that’s been for me.”