HOUSTON—Years ago, musician Melissa Fair Weber looked up one day and saw an image of a young woman in traditional Chinese costume in mid-leap. It was a colorful Shen Yun Performing Arts advertisement, and she knew then that she had to see a performance.

“I thought, that would be spectacular. And it was. It was beyond spectacular,” Mrs. Fair Weber said. “It met my needs in my heart.”

Mrs. Fair Weber finally saw a performance with her husband Ken Weber, a designer, on Dec. 26 at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston.

The performance was filled with moments that brought Mrs. Fair Weber to tears of joy.

“I cried. My heart was bleeding for just the joy, and the memories that [it] brought back to me from my childhood and my artistic experience and the gift, that the god has given me, as well as the performers,” Mrs. Fair Weber said. Her father is a musician as well, and the songs and melodies brought back memories of family and of learning to play music.

She noted another instance that brought her to tears, a solo by erhu virtuoso Qi Xiaochun. The virtuoso had played the two-stringed Chinese violin to such effect that the audience fell completely silent, waiting for the most subtle of moves.

“That instrument, it had such a beautiful segment,” Mrs. Fair Weber said. “It sounded like a sweet cry, as she played. It was so moving.”

New York-based Shen Yun performs mainly classical Chinese dance, accompanied by a unique orchestra blending East and West. Instruments like the pipa, or Chinese lute, are seamlessly harmonized into a full symphony orchestra to create a new sound.

The orchestra was so perfect, Mrs. Fair Weber said, it was almost like you couldn’t fathom there were people in the orchestra pit playing.

“There was such a balance there,” she said. “It was so perfected ... it was orchestrated and written according to the steps, the movement, the colors and the vibrant tones that each of the stories brought. I think that it’s a great collaboration.”

The balance of the dancers with the digital backdrop, with the music, was impeccable, she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this ... it’s impeccable. Just outstanding.”

“[It’s] ethnically rich. Profound with excellent precision in dance,” Mrs. Fair Weber said.

Reporting by NTD Television, Lea Zhou, and Catherine Yang

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.