DETROIT—When Kelly Walters told her mother she was going to attend Shen Yun Performing Arts, her mother was so excited that she started to dance—to emulate as best she could— classical Chinese dance.

“I loved when I told her I was going; she got all excited and said ‘OH!’” and then she danced. “It didn’t quite come out when she was doing it, but I got it.”

Ms. Walters, General Council and Vice President for First State Bank, attended New York-based Shen Yun Thursday night, Feb. 6 at the Detroit Opera House.

Shen Yun takes the audience on a journey of 5,000 years through the beauty, majesty, and engaging spectacle of traditional Chinese culture, according to the company’s website. Through music and dance, the performers tell stories from China’s ancient legends on through to today.

“It’s wonderful, it’s amazing, the harmony, the spirituality, the way everybody flowed together, when everybody works together. The colors flow, the people flow, the dance flows, and everything was beautiful. I’m impressed with it,” Ms. Walters said.

About the dancing, she said, “The way they moved so gracefully and you know what they were doing is not easy, but they made it look so beautiful and so easy.”

Shen Yun travels with a full size orchestra comprised of both Eastern and Western instruments, creating one unique sound.

“It all flowed together [too], it was amazing,” Ms. Walters said about the music. The emcees “pointed out all the different instruments … and they came together; it was beautiful. I saw a lot of harmony between the music, the people, the costumes, and the scenery in the background. It was just very, very wonderful.”

She got the feeling that when all the performers worked together that “everything flows together so warmly and beautifully …. uplifting, very warm and uplifting.”

Had her mother seen a commercial that inspired her to dance?

“She must have, I’m not sure where she heard about it. She was very excited; I would love to take her,” she said.

Reporting by Valerie Avore and Sharon Kilarski

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.