DALLAS—Shen Yun Performing Arts was well received by an enthusiastic audience at the Winspear Opera House on its opening night in Dallas on Jan. 9.

Maggie Oaks, director of marketing for a large manufacturing company, said she would recommend that everyone see Shen Yun.

“It was fun. It was great. It was neat,” Ms. Oaks said.

“I wasn’t expecting the background effects, I thought that was really cool. I’m still trying to figure out how they did all of that,” she said, referring to Shen Yun’s use of animated digital backdrops that set the scene on stage, and from which dancers seem to appear and disappear.

Amanda Rawlins, who works as an auditor for the Department of Defense, said she loved many different elements in Shen Yun.

“I really like the costumes. I love the music, and especially the dancing.”

She liked the vocalist who was singing using the bel canto technique. “It was beautiful,” she said.

Marcus Martin, who came to see Shen Yun with Ms. Rawlins, said he enjoyed the music performed live by the Shen Yun Orchestra.

“I like the fact that there is a live orchestra and it is not pre-recorded. It is also nice just to be able to visually look down and see the musicians. Sometimes I watch them as much as the dancers,” he said.

He also praised how the music harmoniously blended traditional Chinese instruments with classical Western instruments.

“Nothing seemed to clash, so that’s very unique,” Mr. Martin said.

According to the Shen Yun website, this blending is not easy given the disparate sounds of Eastern and Western music.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by a group of Chinese artists who wanted to revive China’s divinely inspired traditional culture. Now, the classical Chinese dance and music company travels the world each year, presenting audiences with all new programs each season.

Julio Avalos, a real estate agent, said Shen Yun is quite unique, different from other performances he has seen.

“The show is definitely something different that’s come to Dallas, it’s not your average show. There have been a lot of performance arts coming around and this really is setting the standard right now,” Mr. Avalos said.

He also said Shen Yun is very educational.

“It’s giving me an insight into how the culture used to be as far as performance and as far as how they went about dancing ...They made it look so suave and so elegant,” he said.

Mr. Avalos added that he would tell everyone who hasn’t yet experienced Shen Yun that “you should definitely go check it out and get a good seat because you’re in for a treat.”

Reporting by Rich Rangel

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

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