PORTLAND, Ore.— “We’ve come to many ballets here, and this is just really special and unique,” said Grant Johnson after experiencing Shen Yun Performing Arts at Portland’s Keller Auditorium on Jan. 18. “The music is wonderful.”

Mr. Johnson, who owns Grant Johnson Drainage Company, was in attendance with his daughter Corinne, a schoolteacher. Specializing in ecologically-friendly landscaping and water systems, Mr. Johnson’s company utilizes the latest in geotechnical and laser technologies.

Shen Yun was more than Mr. Johnson had expected. “We greatly enjoy it,” he said.

Ms. Johnson has some personal experience in dance, so she was pleased to see the superbly performed classical Chinese dance.

“Over thousands of years, it was constantly refined, eventually developing into the vast and distinctly Chinese dance form we know today,” reads Shen Yun’s website.

“So it’s neat to watch,” Ms. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson was also taken by Shen Yun’s stories, which include tales of the creation of mankind as well as Chinese culture’s divine origins. “A unique feature of Chinese civilization is that its history has been documented and passed down uninterrupted for 5,000 years, sometimes in vivid detail,” reads Shen Yun’s website.

“Well they talk about the Creator; I hadn’t heard that creation story, so that’s interesting,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that the digital backdrop was spectacular.

“The screen is awesome,” he said. “I have never seen a performance that combined animation and the live dance the way they bring the two of them together.”

He concluded that the power of the drums on stage was like nothing he has ever heard before. “So, whenever I hear the drums it’s really special,” he said.

Reporting by Lauren Morency DePhillips and Michael Fitzgerald.

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.