HOUSTON—Ruy Castellan had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts advertised for years, but New Year’s Day was the first time he attended a performance, and he only wished he'd done so sooner.

“It’s just amazing. It is truly, truly moving. The perfection, the choreography, the interaction with the screen is just amazing. I didn’t expect anything like this,” said Mr. Castellan, a business consultant.

He attended the performance at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts with Eileen Dyer, who agreed with his assessment of the performance.

“Never really put it together. Had I known that it was an anti-communist thing, I would have come years before,” he said. “This is a stand against communist China.”

For 5,000 years, China was known as the “Land of the Divine,” and civilization centered around the principle of harmony between heaven, earth, and humankind. The ancient Chinese believed their culture was divinely inspired, and Shen Yun follows that tradition, with the company’s name meaning “the beauty of divine beings dancing.”

“The artistic expression is just beautiful,” she said. “Just the style of the dance and everything, like the flow, they just drift on and off ... they’re floating, it’s beautiful.”

Also in the audience was Yancy Wilson and his son Yancy Wilson Jr., who work together in real estate development with Mr. Wilson, the senior being owner of three businesses.

Yancy Wilson Jr. said he thought Shen Yun was great to “bridge a gap between us, China, all of us, the universe.”

Yancy Wilson Jr. said Shen Yun brought them “a different culture, a different perspective,” but it was one that was universal and one to which he could relate.