AUSTIN, Texas—Some of the earliest arts were used to revere the gods, but nowadays, “you don’t normally see art and faith together,” said Aida Ramirez, who enjoyed Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Long Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 7.

Dave Kennedy, an IBM technology manager, and Ms. Ramirez attended one of Shen Yun’s performances on Jan. 7 and strongly recommended the performance. The New York-based classical Chinese dance company kicked off its 2023 season only two weeks ago, and on Saturday, seven of its eight globally touring companies were performing.

“I thought it was artistic. I thought it was impressive, enlightening, imaginative, and also reflective of the Chinese history and Chinese culture and the situation today,” he said. “Five thousand years and the fact that they can’t perform this in China is interesting and unfortunate. It’s sad.”

Mr. Kennedy said he wished he had brought his daughter; the two of them had recently argued about the role of faith, and he found the traditional Chinese culture’s perspective on faith enlightening himself.

“I thought it was enlightening, that there was a spiritual sense to it,” he said. “A spiritual battle.”

“Normally art is a separate thing. And in this [performance], it’s combined, it’s not separate, right? And I really enjoyed that part that people’s faith, and no matter what [difficulties] you’re in, your faith can bring you out of it,” she said.