Houston Theatergoers Excited for Shen Yun’s All-New 2026 Tour
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Repeat patrons Elder Daniel Lawyer and his wife Sister Ellen Cornett Lawyer attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Jones Hall in Houston on Dec. 27, 2025. Sonia Wu/The Epoch Times
HOUSTON—Shen Yun Performing Arts has kicked off the 2026 season with its second performance in Texas.
Many Houston theatregoers have been looking forward to New York-based Shen Yun’s all-new tour, including Elder Daniel Lawyer and his wife, Sister Ellen Cornett Lawyer, who attended the matinee performance at the Jones Hall on Dec. 27.
“This is our second time seeing it,” Mr. Lawyer said. “We saw it at one time in West Texas before, [and] we were anxiously waiting for it to come here. … It’s truly a wonderful show, and we have enjoyed it very much.”
Mrs. Lawyer was both impressed with the accuracy of the dancers and soothed by the graceful rhythm of the dances.
“They all move with one flow, it’s just absolutely beautiful,” she said, “And it feels very comfortable, very relaxing.”
“It just expresses a lot of tradition and love,” she added.
Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Along with folk dances and solo performances, the production depicts story-based pieces that tell tales from ancient times to the present day.
China’s authentic culture is inseparable from its spiritual heritage—where a pantheon of divine beings, spiritual cultivators, and mythology has shaped the culture for 5,000 years, according to the company’s website.
As missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mr. and Mrs. Lawyer were impressed with the spiritual theme of the performance.
“All the presentations have a wonderful story with it,” Mr. Lawyer said.
“I had no idea that some of their ancient beliefs and their ways of life coincide with what we believe today and understand to be true,” he added.
Mr. and Mrs. Lawyer said they would strongly recommend attending the performance.
“Feel the culture. Understand the culture. Understand the beliefs and the way they presented it,” Mr. Lawyer said.
A ‘Spiritual Journey of the Soul’
Charles Sheffield and Carol Hill inside Houston's Jones Hall auditorium on Dec. 27, 2025. Frank Liang/The Epoch Times
Charles Sheffield, a CEO, and Carol Hill, an entrepreneur, also attended the matinee performance at the Jones Hall in Houston on Dec. 27
Mr. Sheffield, who has seen Shen Yun perform in previous years, brought Ms. Hill to see the performance for the first time.
“I love the metaphysical quality of it, the spiritual overlay,” Ms. Hill said. “I think it’s the spiritual journey of the soul.”
“It’s a message for each individual to embrace the divinity within them and to evolve and to pass along the knowledge that they learn and to elevate consciousness,” she added.
Since 2006, Shen Yun has performed at top theatres worldwide with a mission to revive China’s traditional culture. Drawing upon the ancient Buddhist and Daoist philosophies once revered in China, Shen Yun says its performances demonstrate “China before communism.” Hence, Shen Yun is banned from performing in China.
“It’s a shame to lose that culture,” Mr. Sheffield said. “Show it as much as you can around the [world] … hopefully it'll get more people to understand what’s going on.”
Along with myths and legends from ancient times, Shen Yun presents story-based dances portraying the persecution of Falun Dafa, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a persecution campaign against the spiritual practice, which is also called Falun Gong, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.
“[The CCP’s] stifling free speech … we need to support the freedom of speech and expression and art,” Ms. Hill said.
She said she is going to highly recommend Shen Yun to her friends and family.
“They need to see it and have their own experience of it,” she said. “I think it’s personal … each individual in the audience has a personal experience.”
Reporting by Sonia Wu, Frank Liang, and Jennifer Schneider.
