EDMONTON, Alberta—Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, and Veronica Torrens felt that seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts on Easter was a great way to spend the holiday.

“It’s a great time of the year for this show because it’s the Easter weekend and it is quite an important holiday for a lot of different religions, and this show was very spiritual,” Veronica Torrens, a manager, said.

“The dancers and all of the artists and just the company in general are trying to make sure that they’re keeping their culture alive and not letting it be suppressed,” Ms. Torrens said.

Aside from classical Chinese dance, Shen Yun’s artists are also trained in various Chinese ethnic and folk dance styles.

“Their colors and the different types of ethnic dances—they’re just trying to make sure that it stays alive and people can learn about it and enjoy it,” Ms. Torrens expressed.

Shen Yun’s resident choreographers work tirelessly each season to make the storytelling of each dance as vivid and clear as possible.

“It was an amazing performance. It was very good. The choreography is just amazing,” said Ross Bozzovia, owner of a farming and trucking company.

Despite all of Shen Yun’s efforts to present the beauty of true Chinese culture to the world, Shen Yun is unable to perform in China.

Most of Shen Yun’s dancers and musicians are overseas Chinese. Although their home is in New York, many still have family and friends in China, but had to flee due to persecution of their faith, a Chinese qigong practice called Falun Dafa that teaches living in accordance with being truthful, kind, and tolerant.

“It’s very unfortunate. You have family, you have friends. It’s your ancestry and your heritage, right?” Mr. Bozzovia. He added that being unable to return to your roots is a terrible thing.