HOUSTON—“It is touching and emotional and nostalgic ... it’s the performers, they make you really feel it,” said Monira Kundi, a doctor who attended Shen Yun Performing Arts with family and friends at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts on Dec. 23.

The party of seven left the theater in enthusiastic conversation over what they said were beautiful and brilliant costumes and exciting dances. Ms. Kundi’s daughter, Mariam—who clapped the highest and loudest, and waved at all the performers at curtain call until they had left—exclaimed “it was perfect!”

“There are no words to describe this. You have to experience it yourself, in person,” Mariam said, her voice charged with emotion. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I don’t have the words.”

Ms. Kundi thought about it, and gave it a try. It was a touching and wonderful performance, she said, because it gave her a sense of nostalgia. Ms. Kundi’s family and friends are Pakistani, a people that are somewhat adjacent to China both geographically and culturally, Ms. Kundi said. So the history and traditional art forms created a connection, she added.

Traditional Chinese culture is deeply spiritual, and it comes through in the traditional art forms New York-based Shen Yun performs, like classical Chinese dance, folk and ethnic dances, and solo vocalists singing in the bel canto technique.

In one dance, Shen Yun performs the “yangge,” a free and easy folk dance with the energetic music common in northern China’s countryside. The dance celebrates a bountiful harvest, and made Ms. Kundi feel like she had stepped into a place she could remember.

“It’s like you can actually feel it, you become part of it, because that’s how harvests are celebrated in so many parts of the world,” Ms. Kundi said. It was this taste of universality that conjured the nostalgia, she said. “Seeing it on stage again, you can connect with it.”

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.