HOUSTON-CYPRESS—Mechanic Patrick Landrum and Rebecca Williams, a real estate investor, were recently engaged and chose to celebrate with Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening show at the CFISD Visual and Performing Arts Center on Valentine’s Day.

It was the couple’s first experience with classical Chinese dance, and they enjoyed every minute.

“I thought it was spectacular,” Ms. Williams said. “There were very many talented artists. I loved it. …The musicians were very talented and the dancers, the actors—all of them.”

“The costumes were very gorgeous. The dresses just kept getting prettier and prettier, I thought. The colors were amazing,” she added.

Based in New York, Shen Yun artists are masters of classical Chinese dance, an ancient and highly expressive art form dating back thousands of years.

Unlike the modern, military-influenced styles often seen in China today, Shen Yun preserves and performs this tradition in its most authentic form, as it was originally passed down through generations.

Mr. Landrum was especially impressed by how the performers seamlessly interacted with the animated 3D digital backdrop, creating a magical illusion that brings stories from ancient times to the present day to life. The technology is so innovative that it holds its own patent.

“That was amazing, it was wonderful,” he said. “I loved it, it’s gorgeous.”

Mr. Landrum said one piece that stood out to him was “You Reap What You Sow,” a light-hearted fairytale about an elderly couple who showed kindness to a poor child begging for food and are, in return, blessed with an unexpected gift.

“It made me laugh, I thought that was hilarious,” he said. Shen Yun’s story-based dances “had a lot of humor, some sadness, I [felt] all the range of emotions.”

Ms. Williams added that she particularly loved the solo performance on the two-stringed erhu, a 4,000-year-old Chinese instrument capable of expressing a wide range of emotions.

“I really loved the two-string instrument,” she said. “It was just beautiful when she played that. I was almost to tears, it was gorgeous. It was unexplainable, the emotions I felt from the music. It really touched me.”

Established in 2006, Shen Yun’s mission is to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture and to restore the beauty and goodness of China before communism.

Though Mr. Landrum practices a different faith, he saw meaningful parallels with his beliefs—such as the idea that when people strive to be kind and uphold high moral standards, the Creator will descend from heaven to help those in need.

“I definitely saw [the Creator,]” he said, “how He speaks through everybody and their talent.”

“Just extraordinary, definitely a magical experience,” Ms. Williams said.