DALLAS—The grace and bearing of the dancers at Shen Yun Performing Arts as they floated across the stage at the Eisemann Center inspired Kay Smith on Jan. 18.

“I loved watching the women. They’re so elegant, and there’s such a grace about them,” said the owner of Lifelong Pilates. “I thought, well, when I go home, I’m going to be practicing some of that posture. I mean, they’re very inspiring.”

The female dancers also transfixed her husband, Earl.

Mr. Smith is now an airline pilot and trainer for American Airlines, but he was a military pilot for 20 years.

“The thing that captivates me is, again, the women,” he said, agreeing with his wife.

In the military, “when you march—everybody—you want nobody up and down.” What the military wants is the marching to be smooth, and that’s just what Shen Yun dancers are like, he said.

“They’re gliding,” he said. “It’s just amazing. So, I just love it.”

In 2006, Chinese artists decided to share traditional Chinese culture with the world and formed Shen Yun Performing Arts. The company presents “China before communism,” which is why it can’t perform in China.

The Smiths saw values they hold in common with the traditional culture of China.

“It makes you appreciate where [the traditional culture] came from,” where, with family and faith, “good things will happen,” Mr. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith said she loved the explicit mention of the divine, faith, and the creator.

“I like to go see things that have moral values to them and that are uplifting,” she added.

The grace and bearing the Smiths saw is at the heart of classical Chinese dance. In addition, due to the expressiveness inherent in the dance form, the company specializes in creating story-based dances that bring to life tales from ancient times to the present day.

“Five thousand years is a long time,” said Sean Powell, an eye doctor, who also attended the Jan. 18 performance, adding that he thought it was interesting how Shen Yun “started from the very beginning with the heavenly-like Creator and then just kind of go up to the modern times with that last session.”

His wife, Diana, also an eye doctor, and two children accompanied him.

“We’re supposed to really relate to the heavens and our heavenly creators,” and not so much to modern ideas, he said regarding the message in the performance.

He found it easy to relate to Shen Yun’s mission after having experienced being in China for a brief time.

“Just to see how people were not able to express themselves was difficult for me,” he said.

For this reason, he said he believes Shen Yun’s mission is very important: “I think it just keeps us grounded.”

The persecution of people of faith in China “makes you sad,” he said.

However, the performance’s poignancy didn’t leave the family feeling sad. Mrs. Powell said she thought the performance was great and that the all-female dance with long water sleeves stood out for her, where the dancers toss and catch their colorful sleeves and twirl them about.

Mr. Powell enjoyed the dance about the Monkey King, a literary character from the famous novel “Journey to the West,” because in that piece, the dancers leapt from the stage and then seemingly popped into the air.

“The interactive background is really cool,” Mrs. Powell said.